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An Interactive Publication 




COMPUTING 




June 1990 




MPUTING 



A MEGABYTE OF SUPERB SOFTWARE 



• 5Y5: Top quality. 50 level arcade game. • CustReq: Mateyou; o»n AmgaDos requesters. 

• Tmtra: Friendly -epiee-TOni lor Ed. • startup: Give a choice 9! startups wth this 

• UusicBoi; Major program upgrade and handy utility, 

another tune tor your colesion, • The Code Clinic: This morttfs source code. 

• MegaWB: Create a 1021 1 1 024 Korttunetl • Rock The House: Boogie on down Id this oigi- 

• Chaos: This north's Sstipgs compi'ei nal toe-tapping I one 

• NoPalfleset: Beat the NTSC boot-up aug. • WotdSeeler: FindthewcKshiddeninthegnd, 

Full instructions are in the June 1990 issue of Amiga Computing 





m 






V I 




S* J 



issr 






Music to yoar ears 

Rock'n'Roll 
' is back 
in town! 

In a deluge of 
colour and 
;.t: music, save the 
zk/X Earth from 
'a classical catas- 
trophe. Classical 
music (yuk!) in its 
most tortureous form has 
overrun the world. With 
monsters so hideously hide- 
ous, so exaggeratingly evil, so 
barbarously bad, it's slowly 
destroyi ng the last traces of the 
only great music... Rock'n'Roll. 
JUMPING JACK SON is our 
only hope. 




As quick as a flash, find out the 
"timeless classic", the "golden 
oldie", the records which 
made Rock'n'Roll. And, of 
course, the first 45 cut by the 
King himself, Elvis Presley. All 
these records must be placed 
where they belong... THE 
JUKEBOX. 

JJS is the fulfilment of techni- 
cal performances. More than 
27 colours on the main game 
screen (on both Amiga and 



Atari !), and up to 100 colours 
on the other screens. And 
don't turn a deaf ear ! JJS also 
has 400 kb of Rock'n'Roll and 
FX sounds. 

JUMPING JACK SON is a 
Magical, Musical, Visual, Mys- 
tery Tour... An ear splitting, 
eye popping adventure. 
JUMP at the opportunity and 
JIVE into the action. 



AVAILABLE ON ATARI ST, STE, AMIGA. 



I N FOGRAM ES 




OVERSEAS MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS LTD 



OVERSEAS MEDIA DISTRIBUTORS LTD 



OM HOUSE, 139-141 DOMINION ROAD, GLENFIELD, LEICESTER LE3 8JB 
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FREE 



MANY OTHERS AVAILABLE - PLEASE CALL 



MICE 



X2O05 Atari High Resolution 

Replacement Mouse £24.50 
X2006 Amiga High Resolution 

Replacement Mouse £24.50 
X2010 Naksha Mouse Suitable 

for Amiga & Atari £39.00 



ALL PRICES ARE 

INCLUSIVE OF VAT AND 

DELIVERY i uk mainland only) 



PRINTERS 



(CITIZEN 



H0100 120D £139.00 

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With 

adjustable arm 

80 Column 

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AMIGA COMPUTERS 



HIOOO 

"BATMAN" PACK 

£399.00 

H1001 

"CLASS OF THE '90'S PACK 

£549.00 

NEW 'FLIGHT OF FANTASY' 
PACK - H1002 £399.00 
COMES COMPLETE WITH: 
HARDWARE 

• Amiga 500 Computer 

• Mouse 

• TV Modulator 
SOFTWARE 

• F29 Retaliator (Flight simulator! 

• Deluxe Paint II 

• Escape from the Planet Of The Robot 
Monsters 

• Rainbow Island 



MONITOR STAND 




HOLDS 14" MONITOR £14.50 
Ref. A0701 All monitor stands 
revolve 360° and tilt up to 25° 



DUST COVERS 



Amiga A500 
Atari 1040 STFM 
Printers 80 Col* 
Printers 132 Col' 
'Please specify printer 



1PC 
1PC 
1PC 
IPC 



C0 102 
C0108 



£5.50 
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HOW TO ORDER 








"Cheque: Please ma 
the address shown ; 
'Credit Card: We ac 
(0533) 877733 (24 
All orders received 
Overnight delivery a* 


ke cheques payable to OMD Ltd 

ibove. 

cept Access & Visa. Please teler, 

hours). 

>y 12 noon are despatched on t 

/ailable £7.50 extra. 


and send them to 
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le same day. 



Managing Editor 
Derek Meakin 

Features Editor 
JeffWalker 

Reviews Editor 
Nic Veilch 

Technical Editor 
John Kennedy 

Production Editor 
Peter Glover 

Art Editor 
Tim Lecky 

Advertisement Manager 
John Snowdcn 

Advertising Safes 
Wendy Colburn 

Published by: 

Interactive Publishing Lid, 

Eurapa House. Adlington Park. 

Adlington, Macclesfield SKM 4NP. 

ISSN 0952-5948 



AMIGA SCENE 



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publishing 

Chairman 
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Managing Director 
Hugh Gollner 

Commercial Director 
David Hurst 

Amiga Computing welcomes articles for publi- 
cation. Material should be typed or computer- 
printed, and preferably double-spaced 
Program listings should he accompanied by 
disc. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed 
envelope, otherwise the return of material can- 
not be guaranteed. Contributions can only be 
accepted for publication by Database 
Publications Ltd on an all-rights basis. 
f> 1990 Database Publications Ltd. tio materia! 
may be reproduced in whole or in part with- 
out written permission. While every cafe is 
taken, the publishers cannot be held legally 
responsible for any errors in articles, listings 
or advertisements, 

.imign Computing is an independent publica- 
tion and Commodore Business Machines 
(U.K.J lid is nol responsidble for any o/ the 
ariicte in this issue or (or any of the opinions 



News trade distribution: Comag Magazine 
Marketing. Tavistock Road, West Dravlou. 
Middlesex UB7 7QE. Tel: West Dravlon (0895) 
■844055. 



9 



NEWS 
ROUND-UP 



A3000 gets closer, A500 sales top a 
quater of a million, A20OO makes a 
pop video, Amiga portable has 
problems and much, much, more. 



LETTERS 



19 



EZRA SURF'S 
POSTBOX 



Sackfuls of your scriblin' to keep our 
postman whistlin'. Surf sorts the 
wheat from the chaff and solves 
some of your problems. 



PROGRAMMING 



29 



THE CODE 
CLINIC 



John Kenedy shows you how to 
display bitplanes in assembler 
and write a fortune cookie 
program in C, 



PORTFOLIO 



35 



ARTISTS' 

SHOWCASE 



Two men and a dog - three stunning 
and very detailed hi-res portraits by 
the inimitable Eric Pickering. 



GAMES 



36 



AMIGA 

ARCADE 



US Gold's Might and Magic 11 goes 
supreme while Tomahawk's Paris- 
Dakar gets the big thumbs down, 
plus the rest of this month's releases. 




688 Attack Sab, Page 43 



1 -•-.-' A " 




^^^^W S™ , ~tBh| 


Sv^^^ 






j^ ■*,*» i 







COVER STORY 



66 



WHOSE LIFE IS 

IT ANYWAY? 



84 



A3001 
REVIEW 



Alastair Scott brings his popular 
series to a conclusion by showing 
that no matter how we try, our lives 
are ruled bv Chaos. 



FEATURE 



Has GVP stolen Commodore's 
thunder with its new 68030 
accelerator board for the A 20 00? 
Stewart C. Russell find out. 



HARDWARE 



74 



THE DUDE 
ON THE HILL 



90 



EXP-8000+ 
RAM BOARD 



Alternative realities on the 
Amiga, The BBC's Peter Ceresole 
brings back glad tidings from 
California. 



REVIEW 



If you wanl lots of ram for your 
A500, you've got to have some- 
where to put it. Jeff Walker looks at 
an 8 meg internal expansion board. 



81 



DISTANT 

SUNS 



92 



NEVER MIND 
THE OCTAVES 



John Kenedy looks at a program 
which amateur astronomers should 
find an invaluable aid to keeping 
warm at night. 



Dean Friedman discusses the pros 
and cons of using random pattern 
generators to create original musical 
scores. 



4 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



CONTENTS 




Might and Mimic !!, Pore 38 



SHORTIES 



95 



MAC-2-D0S 
TOOLBOX 



Reviews of a utility to read 
Macintosh discs and the latest in 
user-configurable programmers' 
editors. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN 



99 



SHAREWARE 
SEQUENCERS 



Get in toe-tapping form with Stewart 
C. Russell's look at PD music 
sequencers, plus a guide to 
registering your shareware. 



TAILPIECE 



LAST 
BLIT 



114 

We lake another look at the world of 
computer jargon and suggest modern 
day changes to upgrade some old 
proverbs. 



COVER MOUNT 



THE 
DISC 



SYS 

Fifty levels of tremendous 
gameplay in this OS friendly 
arcade game, topped off with 
music and digitised sound effects. 

WORDSEEKER 

Create and solve your own word 
search puzzles with this mouse- 
controlied brain teaser. 

chaos 

Who will win the contest of 
predators versus prey. Make your 
very own bifurcation diagram 
(wow!) and freak to the wonders 
of the de Jong attractor. 

MEGAWB 

Make life easier by increasing the 
size of your workbench screen to 
an amazing 1024x1024 pixels. 

CUSTREQ 

Create friendly requesters for 
your scripts with this easy-to-use 
utility. 

NOPALRESET 

Beat the NTSC bug. If your Amiga 
doesn't open a PAL screen, this 
program re-boots the system for 
you. 



O O M 



A MEGABYTE 



PUT 



:SS£Ssar 



°ISUPERB 



I N G 



SOFTWARE 






— _ -^ ^o^ a Computlng 



STARTUP 

Give users a startup-sequence 

choice by using this friendly 

command. 

MUSICBOX 

A major upgrade to vl.B 
plus some fantastic Space 
Fantasy music for 

your collection. 



ROCK THE HOUSE 
Original music score from the 
talented Howie Davies. Pipe it 
through the hi-fi and play it loud. 

TEXTRA 

Brilliant, user-friendly 
replacement text editor for Ed. A 
mouse driven interface makes it a 
joy to use. 



IOBUXATACXSU 




MCNOO IV 
DASPMl'JK 
I. II k II X (, I! I V 
RY WCfi NO WO 
LFONH IMRKY 
MT IMMK XOTS; 
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WordSeeker 



Mega WB 



AMIGA COMPUTING funs 1990 5 



EVERYTHING FOR YOUR ST & AMIGA UNDER 1 ROOF 



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SUMMER EVENT 

JUNE 29th/30th & JULY 1st 

JUNE 28th TRADE/PRESS BY INVITATION ONLY 

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Save 50% if you pre purchase before 17th June 

REGULAR TICKET PRICE £4 PRE PURCHASE FAST LANE TICKET £2 
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Post to: THE 16 BIT COMPUTER FAIR. PO BOX 68, ST. AUSTELL.PL25 4YB 
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INFORMATION CONTAl 

WESTMINSTER 

EXHIBITION LTD, 

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SURREY, KTT 1ER 

PHONE: 081-549-3444 

FAX: 081-547-1311 



/yew rrocfaefe 



A host of new features 
in Version 1.05 

HiSoft BASIC on the Amiga has already proved its worth for 
thousands of people because of its speed, its compatibility 
with AmigaBASIC and QuickBASIC on the PC and its ease of 
use. Now we've added features that make HiSoft BASIC 
irresistible. Version 1.05 gives you: 

« Even more compatibility with AmigaBASIC making it 
simplicity itself to compile all your existing programs into 
super-fast, stand-alone machine code. 

• Linking with assembler and C programs. Now you can use 
external functions and sub-programs from either 
assembly-language or C programs, giving BASIC a power 
you will find hard to believe. 

* Extended editor for 1 M users with automatic upper-casing of 
BASIC reserved words as you type them in, making for clear, 
easy-to understand program listings. 

Remember that HiSoft BASIC is not just an incredibly fast 
compiler producing compact, very fast machine code but it is 
a complete programming environment - you create and edit 
your programs just like you do with an interpreter but then, 
when you run your program, it is automatically compiled to 
give the best of all worlds. One package, one price. HiSoft 
BASIC 1.05 still costs only £79.95 inclusive. Upgrades are 
avaiiable to existing registered users at £5. 





Invaluable libraries for 
HiSoft BASIC 

The Extend package is available at last! The Amiga is a 
difficult computer to program and AmigaBASIC offers little 
help in using the gadgets, menus and requesters that the 
operating system supports. Extend gives you an extensive 
library of sub-programs and functions that is available from 
both AmigaBASIC and HiSoft BASIC to fill these gaps. 

Extend allows full control over the system gadgets, menus 
and sub-menus, requesters, windows, IFF-format files and 
much more. It comes complete with over 50 pages of 
documentation packed with clear examples of the usage of 
the library and, of course, the library itself (and examples) on 
disk. All for £19.95 inclusive. 

Now you can extend the power of your Amiga's BASIC with 
this great new package. 



/ 



Both Skipping' nlocv; 



Also available for the Amiga are: HiSoft Devpac version 2 (£59.95), the 
most complete and reliable system for assembly language programming 
on the Amiga and it works on all Amigas (unlike some other assemblers 
we could argue about!); Lattice C 5.04 (£229), the ultimate C package - 
very fast with everything you need including a global optimiser and 
extensive, 2 -volume documentation. 

All software should be available from your local dealer. In case of 

difficulty, you can order directly from HiSoft by phone, using your Access 

or Visa card or by mail, using Access, Visa, a cheque or postal orders. Our 

prices include VAT and shipping within the UK. 

HiSoft, The Old School, Greenfield, Bedford MK45 5DE. 
Tel: (0525) 718181, Pax: (0525) 713716 




High Quality Software 





TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME 

Send cheques to: Dept AC 
Memory Expansion Systems Ltd. 

Britannia Buildings, 46 Fenwick Street, 
Liverpool L2 7NB 

(051 ) 236 0480 (° 51 ) 236 0480 * 24 Hour Sales 

PRICESARESUBJECTTOCHANGEWiTHOUTNOTICE (051) 227 2482 - 24 Hour Fax 





AMIGA SCENE 




Date set for Commodore's 
Archimedes-basher 



FACED with mounting trade 
speculation. Commodore 
has finally admitted the 
existence of its new Amiga. 
As Amiga Computing went 
to press, a company 
spokesman confirmed that 
the machine would be 
launched at the Which? 
Computer Show. 

All firm information on 
the latest Amiga was under 
strict embargo until April 
24, the first day of the show, 
after it failed to make its 
expected debut at the CeBit 
'90 show in Hanover. 

Full details will appear in 
next month's Amiga 
Computing but in the mean- 
time the trade has been 
indulging in its traditional 
guessing games - some said 
to come from the inevitable 
"reliable sources". 

Rumours say that the new 
machine is centered round a 
25MHz 68030, 32 bit pro- 
cessor, is smaller than the 



existing A2000 and only 
contains four expansion 
slots rather than seven. 

It is said to be fitted with 
1Mb of chip ram upgrade- 
able to 2Mb plus 1Mb of fast 
ram upgradeable to a maxi- 
mum of 4Mb. 

Tipped to be faster than 
an equivalent Acorn 
Archimedes, the new Amiga 
is also said to include a dis- 
play enhancer, AmigaDos 
1.4, and fastfile hard disc 
format routines in rom. 

Other sources have hinted 
at two models - a 25MHz 
and a 33MHz version. 

The new machine has 
long been dubbed the 
A3000 but Commodore 
could not be persuaded to 
reveal its official name. If 
that tag is correct, it could 
lead to problems with 
Acorn Computers which 
used the same name for its 
latest Archimedes-based 
BBC Micro. 



Germany taking stock 



AN English version of the 
German stock market simula- 
tion Wall Street Wizard from 
Profisoft has been added to 
the range offered by Data 
Liberation (0983 864674). 

Due from the same stable 
later this year are simula- 
tions of running a trucking 
company across Europe and 
of a 19th century railway sys- 
tem. 

Wall Street Wizard is a 
stock market challenge for 
one to six players. It has 10 
skill levels and includes 12 



major industries and 48 
stocks interacting with more 
than 1,000 businesses and 
various political events. 
Price, £39.95. 

Under development for the 
Amiga is A Day at the Races, 
which is all about owning, 
training, racing and making 
money with horses. A total of 
500 horses and jockeys are 
followed throughout a year's 
racing with the database 
keeping records and updat- 
ing form for each playing ses- 
sion. 




THE Amiga has been 
voted Top of the Pops by 
new group Oh Well. 
Teamed with the skills of 
The Bitmap Brothers it 
was used to produce a 
promotional video for the 
band's latest single Radar 
Love. 

A London video pro- 
duction company 
approached the Bitmaps 
and asked them to pro- 
vide additional graphics 



Amiga's top 
of the pops 

footage for the video. 
Using the graphics an 
Amiga 2000 with extend- 
ed memory and an accel- 
erator board, they created 
on-screen ripple effects. 
The project took four days 
and the results were then 
incorporated into the film 
already taken of the band. 




Tipster falls at National 



AMIGA betting program 
The Tipster has fallen at the 
last fence after a winning 
streak which put money in 
the pockets of its developer 
Stever Marriott, his family 
and many users of the 
package. 

Call Collect, Brown 
Windsor and outsiders 
Stars Delight and Ghofar 
were The Tipster's tips for 



the Grand National. Brown 
Windsor was the only horse 
to show, coming in fourth. 

The Tipster's winning 
streak started with the 
Cheltenham Gold Cup 
when it threw up rank out- 
sider Norton's Coin. The 
horse romped home at 100- 
1 which was good news for 
the Marriott family who 
market the package 



through their Exeter-based 
company TAM (0392 
215485). They won £1,000. 
The program was also right 
with Toby Tobias which 
came in second. 

Its winning streak was 
repeated with the 33-1 out- 
sider Evic Star in The 
Lincoln. 

Steve admits that neither 
he nor bis family have any 



expertise in the horse 
world. He is an electronics 
technician and wrote The 
Tipster in November last 
year, applying pure statis- 
tics to data on the winners 
from 800 races. 

He also built in eight spe- 
cial paints which include 
the often discounted beaten 
favourites and the number 
of days since a horse ran. 



AMIGA COMPUTING June woo 



AMIGA SCENE 



Speedy 
spreadsheet 

THE latest offering from 
Gold Disk is claimed to 
have the fastest recalcula- 
tions of any Amiga spread- 
sheet. 

Home Office Advantage 
features more than 80 statis- 
tical, financial, trigonomet- 
ric and user-definable 
functions and allows work- 
sheets of up to 65,000 rows 
by 65,000 columns to be 
constructed. 

Information can be trans- 
ferred from the package's 
built-in database and charts 
and graphs can be created 
via the graphics section. 
Home Office Advantage is 
available from HB 
Marketing (0753 686000), 
price £99.95. 



Animation 
gets moving 

ANIMATION can be a labo- 
rious task but the Amiga 
can speed up the process 
with the help of a new 
package developed in 
Canada. 

Journeyman comes from 
Hask Enterprises of 
Vancouver. By manipulat- 
ing images on an Amiga, 
users can produce animat- 
ed sequences much more 
quickly than by the tradi- 
tional method of snapping 
individual frames in 
sequence. It costs $500. 
Hask Enterprises can be 
contacted on 0101 206 696 
7443. 



Date with 
the family 

AMIGA owners who want 
to keep tabs on their fami- 
lies now have an easily 
used but fully comprehen- 
sive genealogical database 
which can support 18 gen- 
erations with siblings. 

NorGen comes from 
America and is available 
through MGA SoftCat (0797 
226601). 

Reports can be extracted 
by such dates as anniver- 
saries or birthdays or by any 
name. Price, £99.95. 




WITH the launch of the new 
Flight of Fantasy pack, 
Commodore has a bit of a 
problem on its hands. Four 
months after its release the 
Batman pack is still selling 
well, and there aren't 
enough A500s to go round. 

To stock the warehouses 
with the new pack means 
having to cut back on the 
production of Batman 
packs, so in an unprece- 
dented move Commodore is 
having more A500s flown 
into the country. 

"This sort of thing usually 
only happens at Christmas", 
said Kelly Sumner, Com- 

Music for 
beginners 

FOR the beginner, music 
making with computers can 
be a world full of complex 
equipment and confusing 
terms. Roland UK (01-568 
4578) aims to solve these 
problems through its new 
package designed with the 
amateur in mind. 

The Desktop Music Pack 
contains everything a new- 
comer needs to make beau- 
tiful sounds and as Amiga 
Computing went to press 
Roland's computer music 
man George Thorn said the 
company was just a couple 
of weeks away from launch- 
ing an Amiga version. This 
decision followed the news 
that Midi software producer 
Dr.T. has launched an 
Amiga version of its Tiger 
Cub sequencer. 

"The pack has been put 
together because we believe 
there is a whole new market 



They're flying in A500s 
to feed the boom 



modore's national accounts 
manager. "Flying product in 
at this stage is unheard of". 

And the Flight of Fantasy 
pack is destined to sell well. 
While the country's games 
players waited anxiously for 
the release of Ocean's F-29 
Retaliator, Commodore was 
keeping under its hat the 
news that it had scooped up 
the game for inclusion in 
the pack. Bundled along 



with F-29 is Rainbow 
Islands, Domark's yet-to-be- 
released Escape from the 
Planet of the Robot 
Monsters and the ubiqui- 
tous Deluxe Paint II. 

With UK sales of the 
A500 already topping 
250,000, Commodore must 
be hoping that with the 
Flight of Fantasy pack it 
will put the ST challenge 
behind it forever. 



for people with Amigas who 
don't think they are musi- 
cians", said marketing man- 
ager for Roland, Alan 
Townsend, 

"The Desktop Music Pack 
is designed for players who 
would like to add more pro- 
fessional sounds to their 
games and for computer 
owners who would like to 
create music with their 
machine and a sequencer. 
These people may not know 
anything about musical 
instruments, so the package 
has been made very very 
simple for them". 

Desktop Music Pack 
includes a CM32L module 
which makes the sound, the 
Tiger Cub sequencer and 
scorewriter Copyist 
Apprentice, also from Dr.T 

The Tiger Cub software 
package allows sequencing 
and recording data for play- 
back using rhythm and 
eight different instruments 
playing at the same time out 
of one box. Copyist 



10 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



Apprentice is compatible 
with Tiger Cub and runs 
simultaneously through 
Dr.T's MPE switch system. 

It is an improved version 
of the Quick-score score 
writer. 

Also included in the pack 
is a utility desktop accesso- 
ry disc which helps set the 
module's reverb and tuning, 
three Midi leads and two 
audio leads for connecting 
the system to a hi-fi. 

The package costs around 
£469 which is claimed to be 
a saving of £80 on the price 
of the equipment when 
bought separately. 



AN accelerator card 
claimed to run software six 
times faster than a standard 
Amiga has been launched 
by Solid State Leisure (0933 
650677). 

With the addition of an 
68881 maths co-processor, 
speeds can be increased by 
20 times and with an 82 by 



AMIGA SCENE 



Roll on under 
blue skies 

AMIGA owners who don't 
mind using a product which 
still has the Atari name on 
it can get into the tracker- 
ball movement with the lat- 
est product from Blue Sky 
Systems. 

Julian Beech, who previ- 
ously worked with Hard 
Edge Communications, has 
now set up Blue Sky and 
has converted the popular 
Atari trackerball to the 
Amiga. Good for games, it 
can be used as a mouse 
replacement and features a 
high quality smooth ball. 

Julian has kept the price 
down to £29.99 but to do 
that he did not feel it was 
viable to have the Atari 
name taken off and replaced 
by Amiga. Blue Sky is at 16 
Sidney Street, Sheffield, Si 
4RH. Telephone 0742 
738675. Fax 0742 757953. 

New drive 
for Amigas 

A NEW external disc drive 
and games pack for Amiga 
owners has been launched 
by Electronic Zoo (0453 
887008). 

The drive is fitted with an 
on/off switch to disable it 
when extra memory is need- 
ed and has a long lead for 
positioning on either side of 
the Amiga. Equipped with a 
through connector, it is 
housed in a strong steel case 
and is fully compatible with 
the Commodore 1010 drive 
but much smaller, measur- 
ing just 220mm x 140mm x 
29mm. 

Included in the pack are 
five games - the Breakout- 
style action package Impact 
with 80 levels, Cosmi heli- 
copter flight simulator 
Super Huey, Microdeal 
shoot-'em-up Gold Runner, 



and speed up 

40 times, according to Solid 
State's Mark Tenny. 

Designed for the A500, 20- 
Card has 4Mb ram capacity, 
runs at 16 MHz and is of 
completely asynchronous 
design. It fits into the 68k 
socket, comes with 1Mb of 
memory and measures 7.75 
x 5.3 inches. Price, £39U. 



VirusX vandalised again 



A BOGUS version of Steve 
Tibbett's famous virus killer, 
VirusX, has appeared recent- 
ly, circulating under the 
name of VirusX 4.4. This is 
the second time this popular 
program has been patched 
and spread by unscrupulous 
and anonymous hackers. 

Last year an altered ver- 
sion of VirusX 3.2 made die 
rounds calling itself VirusX 
3.3. 

Like version 3.3, version 
4.4 is not by Steve Tibbett. 
It is, however, harmless. If 



you have it and you've run 
it, there's nothing to worry 
about — it is only a VirusX 
4.0 archive that has been 
slightly modified by some- 
body who obviously doesn't 
know anything about C - 
nor, based on some of the 
things he says, about pro- 
gramming the Amiga. 

The 4.4 archive contains a 
VirusX. Docs that has a 
description of a new virus 
appended to the documents, 
has a longer description of 
this virus appended to the 




Electronic Zoo's ne^Y Amiga drive 

Hewson's 100 screen fire- 
power game Exolon and 
Microdeal's commando- 
style shoot-em-up Leather- 
neck. 
The pack costs £99. 



Maths for 
the minors 

MATHTALK and Mathtalk 
Fractions are the latest edu- 
cational offerings on the 
Amiga from ESP Software 
(0702 600557). 

Designed for five to 13 
year-olds, Mathtalk concen- 
trates on addition, subtrac- 
tion, multiplication and 
division. With input from 
both mouse and keyboard, 
the program speaks to the 
student via character 
Professor Matt A.Matics, 
working through problems 
and showing how to solve 
them if a mistake is made. 

Interest is kept by the 
inclusion of two simple 
games and users can 
increase difficulty by input- 



ing their own problems 

which can be saved for later 
use. 

Mathtalk Fractions is 
designed for 8 to 15-year- 
olds, features Professor Matt 
and concentrates on frac- 
tions, decimals and percent- 
ages. Moving away from 
straight question and 
answer, it is another tutorial 
program which includes 
games to keep interest. 

Both programs cost 
£19.95. 



Long life 
mouse 

A NEW upgrade service for 
Amiga mice is now avail- 
able from Simpson 
Electronics (0332 760353). 

By replacing the existing 
switch gear with high quali- 
ty microswitches, the com- 
pany aims to lengthen the 
working life of a mouse. 

The upgrade is guaran- 
teed for a year and a mini- 
mum of 200,000 operations. 
Price, £12.50. 



source file, has some punc- 
tuation moved around in 
the source file, and has the 
4.00 version number 
patched to 4.40. 

That's it. If you have it, 
please don't pass it on. 

Steve Tibbett says another 
version of the real" VirusX is 
imminent, with new fea- 
tures and knowledge of a 
number of new viruses. As 
soon as Steve releases it 
we'll pass it on to you on 
the Amiga Computing cover 
disc. 



A500 net 

NINE Tiles Computer 
Systems (0223 440099) has 
released a new low-cost net- 
work for the Amiga. 

Allowing the A500 to be 
linked to PCs or A2000s and 
vice versa, the system can 
support up to 125 
machines. It features 
CatenaNet software and a 
plug-in Amiga card. Price, 
£300 per user. 



Now playing 
on Amigas 

QUARTET, the Midi sample 
sequencer which made such 
a name for itself on the 
Atari ST, is now available 
for Amiga the 500, 1000 and 
2000. 

The package includes all 
that is needed to make a 
demo and save it to disc. 
Users can choose between 
an auto-booting demo or 
one that can be operated 
from the Workbench. 

Samples can be used from 
any type of sampler includ- 
ing AMAS and Master 
Sound with a capacity for 
up to 16 samples in memory 
at once - all accessible from 
the keypad. 

The program also adopts 
poly-play mode which 
make sample playback pos- 
sible. It costs £49.95 and is 
available from Microdeal 
(0726 68020). 

Also available from 
Micrdeal is a new Midi 
interface for Amiga 500 and 
2000. Price, £24.95. 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 11 



Distinctly Digita 

Cleverly written and always favourably reviewed in the press, 
Digita produces a range of powerful, low cost software for the home 
and business user. 



DGCALC 



The fastest and most powerful spreadsheet available in this 
p'ice bracket with 512 rows t»y 52 columns, giving yw up t& 
26624 cells. As with ail Digita products, the operator of the 
program isdeariytrxHjgfitO'jt. Being either menj mouse or 
owirmriiS driven you'll be able lo start using it within minutes 
-even il you've never used a spreadsheet before. Some of 
the features which make it such good value are the exporting 
of ASCII tiles tor integration with other programs, adjustable 
column wdthj and text overflow, programmable function keys 
i macros), and a unique windowing facility, so that you can 
look at different parts of a sheet al Ihs same time.* _ _ 



E-TYPE 



Do you ever have to print names and addresses al awkward 
places on envelopes, or do you ever need to Ml intricky 
forms or invoices where the lent has to be in exactly the right 
place? Usually you have lodo il by hand, or gel your trusty 
old typewriter outol the cupboard and dust itoff. Well nol 
anymore. The Emulated TYPEwnter transforms your 
computer and printer into a fully fledged typewriter, 
supporting bold, underline, italic and other type-styles. 
Because it can display and print text SNSTANTIV you can fine 
up your form, press Return and Space afew times to move to 
the correct place, and then start typing Alternatively you can 
switch to line-by-line mode, whrcft offers word-wrap. 
jusiif i cation and proportional spacing, so lhal you can edit 
eacnlineberore its primed. Mft __ 



PERSONAL TAX PLANNER 



Are you absolutely sure your taxman is doing his job 
correctly? Plan your own tax with ease, this menu-driven 
program will calculate your income tax liability |4 lax years 
included) and provide pertinent facts about your tan position 
You can perform what-if T calculation to discover ways to 
minimise your tax liability In tact, the program w.l advise 
you on things such as, if you are a married man. whether it 
wouid be advantageous to have your wife's income taxed 
separately or not. At this pr rce who knows, you wffl pro&ably 
Fj-kJ lhatPTP w=ll pay tor itself in tax savings the first time you 
use it! 

" STOP PRESS " 
July 89- PTP user receives tax refund oi over C2.C00 1 ' 



MAJLSHOT 



If you ever need to send out mailings or print labels, you 
kno* how tiddly and fsme-consunvng it can be making sure 
al) Ihe labels are printed correctly, Well now all that's a thing 
of the past Because Marl shot actually shows you the labels 
on screen, you can type names andl addresses m exactly the 
correct p'ace, Bui more than that, the (abets are animated on 
screen as a continuous sheet, allowing you to scroti 
backwards and forwards, to search for particular keywords or 
to edit entries with the minimum of fuss. Facilities include 
seaichmg, detection ol duplicate labels, sorting (even 
surname 1 }^ labels across, 999 copies of any label. This has 
lo be the simplest and mosl effective method ol creating a 
mailshol available. c*iA oe 

£24.95 



MAJLSHOT PLUS 



Advanced version ol Mailshot lor the business user with the 

following eatra facilities: 

' integration with other software (u&ng ASCII tries) 

* cotumnrtabulaled summary I ideal for telephone lists, et£| 
'4 extra memo lines perlabel (with defaults} ' system lor 
coding, dating and adding messages to each label 

* different layouts available lor horizontal and vertical 



CASHBOOK COMBO 



Money saving combination pack featuring both Cashbook 
Controller and Final Accounts - Save i 10-00. _ _ ,_ *_ 

£69.96 



Escape from executive s 
game. 




FINAL ACCOUNTS 



The program wilt lake irrformalior* prepared by Cashbook 
Controller and produce a complete set of accounts including; 

* Trial Balance ' Trading and Profit and Loss Account 
' Balance Sheet * Notes to the Accounts 

* Full Accounting ratios. 
All reports may be produced at any time, with 
comparativ&'budget figures if required. The facility to 
produce these documents quickly, accurately, and regularly 
is of enormous help in running any business, large or small, 
since one shows fie true profitability achieved, and the other 
Ihe exact strength of the business in terms of assets and 
''abilities. «-,- «- 

£29.95 



CLASSIC INVADERS 



s with the classic space invader 

£14.95 



<^^ 



\ JS2k . I *4* 




£39.95 



DAY-BY-DAY 



An excellent way to get organised With il you'll be reminded 
■y birthdays and other anniversaries, meetings and 
appointments, phone calls to make and so on. As with all 
Ogita products. ■ nputting nlormalion is simplicity iselt and. 
once entered, you can search for keywords or for particular 
events such as birthdays to see when one is coming up 
Includes month'week/day planner, automatic reminders for 
overdue appointments, month and week summary at a 
glance, for less than £30 this is the ideal way to make sure 
you never miss that important occasion again! 

£29,95 



Available to the trade from: 
Digita, GEM, Greyhound, 
HB Marketing, Lazer, 
Leisuresoft, R & R, SDL. 



■^^^^^'■Vi^^LLtliiy ■£ ^B 






HOAfp 




DIGITA 

INTERNATIONAL 



"Serious software at a sensible price 



tr 



All software written in the UK. Prices include VAT & P & P (add £2.00 for export; 



• HOW TO ORDER • 



CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 



Post: Digita International Lid 
Black Horse House 
Exmouth Devon 

EX8 1JL England 
Fax: 0395 268893 



(*•*» Svvtl 



M* 



ffiE 



cdMf|g.h^.j 
-InlolpUrd 



Lessons 
from life 

ALLOWING children to 
relate their lessons to real 
life is an important aspect 
of education and two pack- 
ages for the Amiga do just 
that. They are Let's Spell at 
The Shops and Let's Spell at 
Home from Soft Stuff 
Software [0732 351234). 

The programs use graph- 
ics and synthesised speech 
to teach letter recognition 
and spelling. Conforming to 
the National Curriculum, 
they are mouse controlled 
for ease of use, have four 
levels of difficulty, print-out 
options and are inter- 
changeable with other Soft 
Stuff programs. 

Price, £19.95, 




When micros 
take wing 

AMIGA owners who 
enjoyed the RealThings 
Horses animation kit from 
RGB Studios (082-581 2666) 
can now take to the air with 
the next in the series - 
RealThings Birds. 

For more than a dozen 
birds, it provides anim- 
brushes of flight in profiles, 
progressive perspective, 
underviews, overviews, 
ground behaviour, flocking 
patterns and seasonal 
plumage. 

Images have been drawn 
and painted by well-known 
bird artist Peter Partington 
and the package includes 
demos, clip art and animat- 
ed scenery. 

"RealThings Birds 1 and 2 
aim to give Amiga lovers 
the chance to recreate the 
fascination we all feel when 
watching birds in their nat- 
ural environment", said 
Robin Grenfell Bilson of 
RGB. 

Full retail price £29.95 
with special launch price of 
£23.95 until July 31. 

Fax pack 
for Amiga 

AMIGA owners can now 
send faxes at the touch of a 
button thanks to a new 
package from Michtron 
(0726 59692). 

Fast Fax is a combination 
of both hardware in the 
form of an external modem 
and software which emu- 
lates PC fax card functions. 

The software features 
both send and receive 
modes and can be pro- 
grammed to send faxes to a 
number of different destina- 



No show for portable 



THE new portable Amiga 
from German manufacturer 
Gigairon (see Amiga 
Computing, March) failed 
to make its expected debut 
at the recent CeBit '90 show 
in Hanover. 

Staff at Gigairon are 
working hard to gel the 
machine completed within 
the next few weeks but a 
question mark hangs over 



ils current negotiations 
with Commodore. 

While Commodore is not 
involved in Ihc develop- 
ment of the machine, it is 
not yet known if it will buy 
the rights to it. If not, it may 
still have to give ils 
approval to any launch, 
since Gigatron's portable 
contains a number of cus- 
tomised chips. 




tions at any time of day. A 
1,000 entry phone book and 
comprehensive message 
storing system are also 
incorporated. 

Communicating ivith 
Group 3 fax machines at 
9,600 baud, the external 
modem connects to the 
Amiga via the RS232C port. 
Price £690. 



As she 
is spoke.. 

A RANGE of GCSE courses 
for the Amiga covering 
English, French and Maths 
has been released by LCL 
(0491 579345). 

Each package takes users 
step by step from age eight 
to GCSE level and consists 
of 24 programs, two books 
and a voice tape. 

MicroEnglish covers all 
aspects of the English lan- 
guage and can also be used 
as an EFL (English as a 
Foreign Language) course 
by running its accompany- 
ing voice tape. 

Spoken French, vocabu- 
lary, verbs and grammar are 
featured in MicroFrench 
and the package is suitable 
for travellers and holiday- 
makers as well as students. 

MicroMaths includes 
algebra, geometry, trigonom- 
etry, statistics and arith- 
metic. Each course costs 
£24. 



At the fair 

AMIGA products will have 
a strong showing at the sec- 
ond 16 Bit Computer Fair to 
be held at the Royal 
Horticultural Halls, London 
from June 28 to July 1. 

A follow-up to the inau- 
gural show held in January, 
it is again organised by 
Westminster Exhibitions. 



Educational 
aid for all 

RELEASED at the European 
Computer Trade Show by 
educational software spe- 
cialist Scetlander (041-357 
1659) was the first of a new 
series of computer programs 
designed to help children of 
all ages with numeracy and 
literacy. 

The series is aimed at 
providing parents with 
quality educational software 
which will run on most 
home computers and will 
mean new releases every six 
weeks this year from the 
Glasgow-based company. 

Called Hooray for 
Henrietta, the first package 
is initially available in 
Spectrum and PC versions 
but there are plans to con- 
vert it to the Amiga in the 
near future. 

"Motivation is fundamen- 
tal to the learning process", 
said chairman and 
managing director Ron 
Lander. "If you raise this 
and most important keep it 
raised, you improve concen- 
tration, determination and 
results. 

"Hooray for Henrietta is a 
delightful program which 
has performed extremely 
well during field tests. 
Since levels of difficulty 
can be set to suit all abili- 
ties, students tend to gain 
confidence quickly and 
build on their successes". 

Aimed at children from 
five to 12 but also flexible 
enough to be used by 
adults, the package features 
Henrietta, Hopeless Henry, 
John the Parrot and the 
mishaps surrounding the 
impending marriage of 
Henrietta and Hopeless 
Henry. The Amiga version 
should be out in the autumn 
and will cost £24.95. 



AMIGA COMPUTING /line 1990 13 



AMIGA SCENE 



USING a state of the art 8 
bit analogue to digital con- 
verter chip capable of more 
than one million samples 
per second, the new MKII 
stereo sampler from Trilogic 
(0274 691115) is claimed to 
be the fastest sampler on the 
market. 

It allows high frequency 
signals such as those found 
in CD quality audio to be 
accurately digitised for high 
quality and features an easi- 
ly accessible input level con- 
trol with no screwdriver 



New modem 
speeds links 

BILLED as "a breakthrough 
in data communications", 
the new EuroLink multi- 
speed modem has been 
developed in conjunction 
with MicroLink, the elec- 
tronic communications ser- 
vice. 

It can handle speeds up to 
2400 baud (40 words a sec- 
ond), is Hayes compatible 
and incorporates an exten- 
sive range of features 
including auto dial, answer 
and redial, baud rate scan- 
ning, auto-terminal baud 
rate sensing and 32 entry 
number store. 

Despite the high technolo- 
gy incorporated into the 
EuroLink modem, it is easy 
to use with a specially 
designed facia which substi- 
tutes clear wording for the 
confusing initials often used 
on other models. 

Although it can be used 
with other systems, the 
EuroLink modem has been 
developed with MicroLink 
subscribers in mind. It 
comes with an Amiga soft- 
ware package which allows 
automatic connection to 
MicroLink - and incorpo- 
rates MNP4 error correction 
for trouble-free data trans- 
mission. 

Available from EuroLink 
(0625 878888) the modem 
package, including free reg- 
istration to MicroLink and 
VAT, costs £254.95. 




Snatch a 
fast sample 

needed. The Stereo Sampler 
MK II is supplied with con- 
necting lead, instructions 
and free PD disc with demo 
versions of Audiomaster and 
Perfect Sound for £39.99. 

If bought with the 
Audiomaster II stereo sam- 
pling software there is a 
special price of £89.99 — a 
savins of £29,99. 



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Neat line 
in type 

A NEW line of professional, 
high quality fonts for 
PageStream on the Amiga 
has been developed in New 
York by Dennis Palumbo 
(0101 5i6 352 5605). 

Using 36 point screen 
fonts, the new line is 




designed to improve screen 
resolution. It features Gallya 
Ornamented, Kooper Black 
and Plaebill typefaces 
including upper and lower 
case letters, numbers, punc- 
tuation plus foreign and 
special characters. 

"The 36 point screen 
fonts are unique in that no 
other producer of Page 
Stream fonts includes them 
as a regular part of their 
complete line", claims 
Dennis Palumbo. "A bonus 
included with this disc is 
the public domain 36 point 
Helvetica screen font". 

Each font contains a mini- 
mum of 184 characters and 
comes with a 90 day war- 
ranty. Until June 1, there is 
a special introductory price 
of S29.95 US with S2 for 
shipping. Dennis Palumbo 
can be contacted at 104 
Barrymore Boulevard, Dept 
B, Frankln Square, New 
York 11010. 



14 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



Accent on acumen 



SERIOUS games players 
have three new offerings for 
the Amiga from CP Software 
(0993 823463). 

The Oxford Softworks 
Chess Champion 2175 is an 
updated and improved ver- 
sion of best-selling Chess 
Player 2150. It combines the 
power of the original pro- 
gram with expanded fea- 
tures including opening 
book control and greatly 
improved plaving strength. 
Price, £29.95. " 

Backgammon Player 
Professional is a fully fea- 
tured computer version of 



the ancient oriental game. It 
includes dice and doubling 
cube, variable playing speed 
and full scoring. Price, 
£19.95. 

Go Play Professional for 
the Amiga features Go, the 
oriental equivalent of chess 
which is so complex it was 
considered unprogram- 
mable. Price, £29.95. 

Each of these games is 
available in French, German 
and Spanish as well as 
English and were appropri- 
ately launched at the 
European Computer Trade 
Show in London. 



Exams time 
for Amiga 

KOSMOS Software (05255 
3942) has been working on 
Amiga conversions of its six 
most popular educational 
packages aiming at a June 
release. 

Four titles will suite the 
needs of beginners, GCSE 
and advanced language stu- 
dents. They are The French 
Mistress, The German 
Master, The Spanish Tutor 
and The Italian Tutor. 
Including large vocabular- 
ies, they allow students to 
choose from a range of 
learning and test modes and 
also to create their own spe- 
cial lessons such as home- 
work or revision lists. 

For ease of use, the vocab- 
ulary is arranged under 32 
separate headings such as 
the family, the dwelling, 
vehicles, substances, parts 
of the body and food and 
drink. There are more than 
2,500 items of vocabulary. 
Price will be £19.95. 

Rounding off the Amiga 
conversions will be two 
educational quiz programs - 
Answer Back Junior and 
Answer Back Senior. Thev 
combine databases of gener- 
al knowledge questions 
with simple games. Each 
program contains 750 ques- 
tions spread over 15 topics. 

Junior subjects include 
nature, music, nursery 
rhymes, books, poetry, sums 
and spelling. Senior ques- 
tions include science, histo- 
ry, geography, literature. 

Answer Back also costs 
£19.95. 



A ATARI ST and C 




Sixteen Bit Superdeals from the Sixteen Bit Specialists! 

CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE! When comparing prices remember ours include fast delivery by courier. 





520 STE Power Pack 
£359.00 

Inc. VA T and Next Day Delivery ' 
Power Pack includes: 

* 520 STE 51 2K Keyboard with Built-in 1 Megabyte disk drive and TV 
Modulator 

* 4096 Colour Palette 

* 8 channel digital stereo sound 

* 4 joystick ports 

* Over £550 worth of games software, including OulRun, Gauntlet 2, 
R-Type, Space Harrier, Super HangOn and 1 6 more Top Games 

* Organiser Business Software including WORDPROCESSOR, SPREAD- 
SHEET and DATABASE. 

A First BASIC and First Music Utility Software. 

* FREE JOYSTICK AND FREE MOUSE MAT WORTH £4.95. 

* Alt leads, manuals PLUS MOUSE and free mains plug! 




520 STFM Discovery Pack 
£279.00 

NEW! fantastic value for money pack includes: 

* 520 STFM 51 2K memory keyboard with built in 1 megabyte double sided 
disk drive and TV modulator 

* Game Pack including OUTRUN. SPACE HARRIE R. CARRIER COMMAND 
and BOMB JACK 

* UTILITY PROGRAMMES inc STOS GAME CREATOR, NEOCHROME 
painting package and FIRST BASIC programming language 

* ST tuiorial programme and 'DISCOVER YOUR ST beginners guide to the 
ST computer 

* PLUS MOUSE, MOUSE MAT. MANUALS, ALL LEADS, METACOMCO 
BASIC AND MAINS PLUG! 



1040 STE Business Pack 
£479.00 

Includes the new 1 megabyle 1 040STE keyboard plus over £200 worth of 
business software including WORD UP wordprocessing software, featuring 
glossary and mail merge. K-Spread 3.0 spread sheet and SUPERBASE 
PERSONAL Database software. Also includes Metacomco BASIC, Mouse 
Pad, all Leads, Manuals and Mouse. 
1040 STE keyboard without software £439 



R 

* 
* 
* 


MEGA 1 Business Pack 
£529.00 

>atures: 

Separate Keyboard and System Unit 

Inc. all software supplied with 1040 STE Business Pack. 

Bitter chip installed for faster graphics 

Inc SM124 Mono Monitor £628.00 





ACCESSORIES 



Quickshot II Turbo Joystick £.9.95 

Competition Pro 5000 Joystick ....£13.95 

Competition Pro with Autofire £14.95 

Konix Speedking Joystick E1 1 .95 

Red Mouse Mat with Amiga logo .. £5.95 
Plain blue Mouse Mat £4.95 



Branded Memorex 3.5" OS DD Disks 

Box of 10 £13.95 

Memorex Disk Box 

For 40 3.5' Disks £8,95 

Amiga 1/2 Meg Expansion £119.95 

Control Centre Atari or Amiga £44.95 



Contriver Amiga and ST Mouse with FREE Holder and Mouse Pad £20.95 



PRINTERS 

Star LC24-10 24 pin inc). lead ST/Amiga £249.00 

Star LC10 including interlace lead for ST/Amiga £169.00 

Star LC10 colour including interlace lead for ST/Amiga £219.00 

Cilizen 120D including interface lead for ST/Amiga £139.00 

SEIKOSHA SO COLUMN PRINTERS - AMAZING PRICES 

Seikosha 9 pin NLQ including interface lead for ST/Amiga £139,00 

Seikosha 24 pin LQ including interface lead for ST/Amiga £239.00 




Amiga A500 BAT Games Pack 

£399.00 

Inc. VAT and Next Day Delivery 

BAT Games Pack includes: 

* Amiga A500 51 2K Keyboard with Built-in 1 Megabyle disk drive 

* Free TV modulator worth £24.99 allowing you to use the Amiga with a 
normal TV 

* DELUXE PAINT II GRAPHIC PACKAGES 

* PHOTON PAINT II graphics with animation worth £70 

* FREE, only-just-released BATMAN-THE MOVIE games software. 

* NEW ZEALAND STORY arcade games software. 

* F16-INTERCEPTOR - amazing 3D flight simulator solrware. 

* A further £230 worth of Games Software, including BUGGY BOY, 
MERCENARY, BARBARIAN, WIZBALL & six more games. 

* FREE MOUSE MAT JOYSTICKS and 10 BLANK DISKS. 

* Amiga BASIC, Amiga EXTRAS 1 .3, Workbench 1 .3 PLUS the Amiga Slep 
by Step Tutorial 

* All leads, manuals PLUS MOUSE and mains plug! 



AMIGA A500 

CLASS OF THE 1990's 
BUSINESS + EDUCATIONAL 

£549.00 



Features: 

* Amiga A5O0 + TV Modulator 

* Midi interface + Software 

* Kind Words II word processor 

* Page Setter DTP 

* Super Base Personal Database 



* Maxiplan 500 spreadsheet 

* Amiga Logo, BBC Emulator, 
Deluxe Paint II 

* Mouse Mat, 10 Blank disks, 

and disk wallet 



AMIGA 1 MEG 

BAT GAME PACK 

£529.00 




1 Mag Bat Games Pack Includes: 

* Fitted 1 Megabyle Memory Expansion + Real Time Clock Card 

* Everything listed for the A500 Bat Game Pack 
A DRAGON'S LAIR 1 MEG MEGAGAME! 



EXTERNAL DISK DRIVES 



Atari SF314 1 Megabyte 

Amiga A1010 1 Megabyte 

Cumana 1 Megabyte Atari or Amiga 

NEC 1 Megabyte Atari or Amiga 

Atari Megafile 30 Hard Disk 

Newl Commodore A590 20 meg hard disk 

A590 Hard Disk & Memory Upgrade installed . 



.£139.00 
.£109.00 
...£69.95 
...£79.95 
.£439.00 
.£369.00 
....Phone 



MONITORS 

Commodore Amiga A1084 Stereo colour Monitor inc. lead 

Atari SC1224 Colour Monitor inc. lead 

Atari SM124 Mono Monitor including lead 

Philips CM8833 stereo colour monitor inc. lead for ST or Amiga . 



.£269.00 
.£259.00 
£119.00 
.£259.00 






CREDIT CARD ORDERLINE 0908 378008 (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm) 

To order: b it her ca 1 ! the orderline above with your credit card details OR make a cheque/PO payable to: Digicom Computer Services 
and send it with your order to the address below. Callers are also most welcome at the address below 

DIGICOM 

Unit 36, Wharfside, Fenny Stratford, MILTON KEYNES MK2 2AZ 

All prices include VAT and next day delivery by courier. 



Instant Credit 
Now Available 



K POWER CC 



ALL PRICES 
ON THESE PAGES 

INCLUDE 
VAT AND DELIVERY 



A selection of special deals only av 



A500 



ONLY 

£59 



NOW ANTI CLICK! 



512K 
EXPANSION 



INC. VAT 

INCLUDING 
BATTERY BACKED CLOCK 



A500 Internal Drive Kit 



£5900 




A500 

1.5MB 

EXPANSION 



ONLY 



£15995 

INC. VAT 

INCLUDING 
BATTERY BACKED CLOCK 



ONLY 

£6995 

INC. VAT 

Power Drive PC880 



■ Now with anti-click that stops that annoying drive click when no disk are present! 

■ Fully compatible with A500, 880K formatted 

■ Isolating on-off switch 

■ Through port for daisy chaining 

■ Colour matched and styled to Amiga 

■ Free utility diskette 

■ 12 month warranty 



A500 Expansion ram PC501/PC502 



40 Disks* and lockable 



I A500 Expansion Ram using low power 1 Mb chips 

I Two Models available 512K/1.5MB 

I Complete with clock and lithium battery 

I Fits in A500 expansion underneath computer 

I Comes complete with extra ram switch off software 

1 1 .5MB model only requires simple cable to be fitted inside Amiga 

1 12 month warranty 



storage box 

£2995 



m 



INC, VAT 



15 Disks* and 
Storage Box 

£995 

INC. VAT 



Verbatim media - fully certified and guaranteed for life ! 



GVP IMPACT 
* a =f a A500 Hard drive 

Now using SIMMS for a massive 4MB extra ram! 





SCSI 3.5" Hafd Disk 

DMAdireci tqonboard 16KB buffer 

controller 

Snap on jjRjjjt connector for reliability 

t^Ps; FFS 

UtplPMB of (as: ram can be added 

External SCSI connector 
Dedicated power supply unit 
\2 month warranty 



45MB 
80MB 
100MB 



OK 
£599.00 
£849.00 
£999.00 



2MB 

£749.00 

£999.00 

£1149.00 



4MB 

£899.00 

£1149.00 

£1299.00 



BUY YOUR A500 SYSTEM FROM POWER 
AND GET A GREAT DEAL MORE ! 




BASIC PACK 
SUPER PACK 
ULTRA PACK 
MEGA PACK 
HYPER PACK 



as above £399 

with PC880 drive £459 

withPC880 + 512K £499 

with PC880+ 1.5MB £599 



as Mega with A590 Hard Dr. £949 

Class of the 90's and other packs available 
Commodore A590 20MB Hard Disk £379 



^ 



IMPUTING 

lable from Power House DIRECT! 



GO COLOUR AMIGO! 



Includes 






H LC10 Colour UK Model 


pimiing kii 


m Parallel Cable 


S~~^\ 


F3 200 sheets microperf paper 


V 


r 


S 200 address labels 






■ LC10 colour WB driver 


.-r=i 


■ Delivery and vat 


£ 


2495 



Star LC10 Colour 
Complete Kit 

£21900 



INC. VAT 



Star LC10 Colour £219 

Star XB1 0-24 Colour £499 

HP PaintJet Colour £799 

HP PaintJet XL A3 Colour £2500 




Amiga Music System (mmsooo + Pro sound Gold) 



£99 




Video Magic + P.A.S.E. 
Animation Program 

■ Multi media presentation system 

■ Supports all IFF picture files 

■ Supports P.A.S.E. Animations 

■ Auto scripting 

■ Sound effects by using 
Prosound Designer 

■ Controllable from joystick Port 2 
HI Many more features 

Full details available 



£49 VIDTECH SCANLOCK £899 




I 


n 




_» 







/. : 


...;."i .-, 



All trade marks acknowledged 



- 



Ytfit 



s"! -.(cm 



The One Stop Software Shop! 
Callers Welcome! 







Pomfw Computing »nr wa; pr^exmwrfy wft-nt 
wotitf-ri* Swm o* nw Wn n*y wwrtl Tb» 
to^cnMng q ■ wtadion from out Iiqi rgripA.Wt 
i-'h Mock mon c' th« publrfwd Antgi boob 
•ntf rnapiUinM 

RED HOT PRICES 

ART & GRAPHICS 
Typically 30-40% offrrp 



Fantavision 

Interchange 

Interfont 

Intro Cad 

Kara Screen Fonts 1 

Kara Screen Fonts 2 

Movie Setter 

Photon Paint 2 

Pixmate 



£29.95 
£49 
£79 
£39 
£49 
£49 
£48 

D9.95 
£35 



WORD PROCESSING, 
DTP & BUSINESS 



Animagic 
Amiga Clipart 
Comic Setter 
Deluxe Paint 3 
Deluxe Photolab 
Deluxe Video 3 
Digipaint3 
DigiviewGold4 



£69 
£29 
£37.95 
£59 
£48 
£79 
£49 
£109.95 





Excellence 
Home Accounts 
Kind Words 
Maxiplan ■■ 
Maxiplan 500 
Pagestream 
Pro Draw 
Pro Page 1.3 
Pro Page Templates 



£159.95 

£24.95 

£39 

£99 

D9 
£120 
£100 
£179 

£39 



BAD 

BBC Emulator 

CLImate 

Dos 2 Dos 

Cross Dos 

Fine Print 

Quarterback 

Transformer 

WB1.3 



PenPal 



£35 
£39 
£20 
£29 
£29 
£39 
£34 
£29 
£15 



Pro Text £74.99 

Pen Pal £99 

Superbase2 £62 

SuperbasePro £160 

Superplan £62 
The Works Platinum £149 

WordPerfect £164 

LANGUAGES ETC 






i 



Pro Video Plus PAL 
Sculpt 3D XL 
Sculpt 4D Junior 
Sculpt 4D 
Turbo Silver 



£169 

£99 

£149 

£329 

£99 



Elan Performer 
Express Paint 3 



Video Magic + P.A.S.E. £49 
Video Page £99 

XCAD Designer £87.95 
XCAD Pro £325 



Devpac Amiga 


£45 


Hisoft Basic 


£55 


Lattice C v5 


£160 


Lattice C+ + 


£299 


Manx C Dev 


£163 


Manx Debugger 


£49 


Power Windows 2.5 


£48 


UTILITIES 





Arexx 



£39 



MUSIC 

Midi Interface 

C64 Music Keyboard 

Interface 

MM5000 Keyboard 

Dr T's Drums 

DrT's Midi Studio 

KCS level 2 

Music X 

Pro Sound Gold 

Amiga Music System 

Sonix 



£25 

£49 
£55 
£25 
£49 
£229 
£199 
£39 
£99 
£45 



Need Help' 

Power Technical Helpline Mon-Fri 3pm-5pm 0234-273243 Customers Only' 

For sales information call our sales linesl All prices are subject to change 



J>OWER 

JJOUSE DIRECT 

NATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR 



Power House, the direct sales arm of Power 
Computing Ltd — Leaders in peripherals St 
software — is the natural choice for the 
Amiga enthusiast. Highly competitive 
prices, a wide choice, fast computerised 
service and the backing of a £2M + 5 year old 
company are just some of the reasons for 
tele-shopping at Power. Large stocks, 
friendly reception and "if it don't work we 
giveyouanewone" are a few more! 




"The Extensive Power House Bedford Showroom" 

open Monday to Satu rday 9.30am - 6.00pm 

Thursday^ Friday 7,00pm 

Power Computing Ltd, 

Power House, 44A Stanley Street, 

Bedford MK41 7RW 

Orders Only 0800 581742 Free Call 
General Enquiries & Orders 
0234 273000 (5 lines) 




Address 



Postcode 



Telephone 



I 



System owned 



Credit Card no 




LZ 



















Expiry date I I I 
Signature 



I would like to order 



J 



Make cheques payable to 
Power Computing Lid 



► 





A 



THEAMIGA2000 SPECIALISTS 

UK SOLE DISTRIBUTOR FOR GVP 



6 8 3 

ACCELERATOR BOARD 

■ 16Mhz,28Mhz,33Mhz 

■ Expandable to 8 MB 

■ Easy to install 

■ 1 2 month warranty 

■ Selectable 68000 fa 
back mode for 
full floppy based game 
compatibility 

■ 68030 design allows high clock rates 
and Genlock compatibility 

HARD DISK CARD 



Upto33Mhz 




GREAT VALLEY PRODUCTS INC. 

8MB EXPANSION BOARD & 
SCSI HARD DISKCONTROLLER 





I Available in a range of sizes 

1 2 MB of fast ram expansion using easy 
to install, state-of-the-art SIMMS 



External SCSI connector for attaching 
additional external SCSI devices 



■ Easy to install 

■ 12 month warranty 



COMMODORE 



Other GVP 
products include 

SCSI CARD 

HARD CARD 

TAPESTORE - 1 50 MB Tape Streamer 

SYQUEST 44 MB - Removable Hard Disk 

PHONE 



Up to 8 MB ram using 1 MB x 8 SIMMS 
modules 

Supports 6 MB fast ram expansion for 
PC Bridgeboard users 

I Includes flat 50-pin ribbon cable for 
connecting internal SCSI Hard Drive 

! Easy to install 

i 12 month warranty 



0234 273000 a = =r 5" = 



FOR YOUR BEST DEALS! 

Dealer Enquiries 0234 273248 



All trade marks acknowledged 



fc 



Power Computing Ltd • 44a Stanley Street • Bedford • MK41 7RW 

Tel 0234 273000 Fax 0234 270133 

Technical Support 0234 273248 Mon-Fri 3-5 pm 

Showroom & Telephone Sales open Mon-Sat 9-30 am - 6-00 pm and to 8 pm Thursdays & Fridays 



1 



LETTERS 



Star letter 



I HAVE recently bought a Star 
LC10 printer for my Amiga and am 
experiencing some frustrating 
problems when I use it with The 
Work! software. 

When [ load Analyse it will not 
print graphics and comes up with a 
"printer not available" message. 
When using it with Scribble, even 
though it shows up on the short 
test routine, the pound sign prints 
as an L. 

I have set the DIP switches to 
British character set and have set 
Preferences to EpsonQ, the nearest 
printer mentioned on the Amiga 
list. 

Andrew Cairns, 
Stralhclyde, 
Scotland. 
The EpsonQ printer driver is for 
Epson compatible 24 pin printers. 
Setting Preferences to EpsonXOId 
or EpsonX[CBM_MPS-1250l will 
get better results. 

Jeff tells me he has found a 
bunch of Star LC10 printer drivers 
released by Commodore on the 01 
for Amiga bulletin board (071-377- 
1358}. I'll see if lean persuade him 
to sneak them on to a future cover 
disc. 



Hi, I'm the new mail man. Man. It's my job to sort your scribblin's and spill the 
beans on the problems we all have when DFO: starts to whirr, So if you've got some- 

thing to say, say it to me. 

The best letters will be sent prizes of up to 

£100, so get a copy of Protexl into your drive 

pronto. Drop me a line at Ezra Surf's 




Fostbox (ESP), Amiga Computing, 
^House, Arlington Park, Adl 
k. Macclesfield SK10 4NP. 



ington, 



In search of 
perfection 



I SEEM to be missing something in 
my life. It isn't the grouse because 
there are plenty here in Scotland 
and I am having a few in this letter. 

The Amiga seems to attract an 
aura of Wysznawyg - what you see 
is not always what you get. Many 
of readers' letters seem to confirm 
this. 

Despite hyped promotions and 



Cover girl mix up 



IMAGINE my surprise when I says that she would be prepared to 
recognised the March cover photo- bet her last penny on it. 



graph to be the spitting image of 
myself. Having shown the picture 
In both family and friends, the gen- 



David Bulwer, 
Eastbourne, 
East Sussex. 



eral feeling is that this is, in fact, a Take the bet. The picture was of 



picture of me. 



our Technical Editor, John "A}" 



I would be very grateful if you Kennedy, who has almost 

could clear this up for me as the bankrupted us by sending out 

likeness is so apparent to other free personally autographed 

people, including my mother, who Issues to all his girlfriends. 



luxury packaging from which the 
rays of the sun shine in more-than- 
oriental splendour with price tags 
to match, in many cases there are 
glaring errors and /or omissions. 

OK, mistakes happen when 
working to tight schedules, but it 
seems to be the parts you are not 
told (even in reviews, sometimes) 
which make the heart beat faster 
and the wallet grow thinner. 

Everyone complains about the 
original Commodore documenta- 
tion and programs. The answer is 
to buy better books, languages and 
so on. But the rest of the commer- 
cial world seems little improved; 
many programs require further pur- 
chases to be useful - fonts and 
debuggers for example - and some 
"professional" packages will only 
work with certain configurations. 

Even your magazine is getting to 
this error and omission stage: The 
February front cover still shows 
1989 date and the boxes on page 
78, Getting Better and Let It Be, are 
the unfinished symphonies of 
Music- X. 

It would be nice to see 
Amigaware getting better, but at the 
moment I feel inclined and would 
advise others to let it be until the 
bugs, quirks and companies con- 
cerned have sorted themselves out, 
Alan Bee, 
Inverness, 
Scotland. 
Sounds like you've got the I-want- 
something-for-nofhing disease to 
me. Do you honestly think it would 
have helped if Commodore had 
bundled the Rom Kernel manuals 



with the machine? Sure, the techie 
programmers would have been 
over the moon, but to you and me 
those books are a thousand pages 
ofgihberish. 

People use computers at differ- 
ent levels. Many are quite happy 
with what they got in the box; these 
are the first time buyers with no 
experience of how a computer can 
change their lives. Next time they 
buy a computer they'll want more. 

Others, like yourself, find that 
what they have bought doesn't 
stretch them and are annoyed that 
they have to go out and spend 
more money on software and hard- 
ware. 

But that's life, chum. There's no 
free rides on this merry-go- round. 

The program hasn '( been writ- 
ten that contains no bugs. People 
who can't program don't under- 
stand this. When they buy a bucket 
they don't expect to get home and 
find a small hole in it. When they 
do, they whinge very loudly. 

But computer programs are not 
buckets, and the hole can almost 
always be patched up by telling the 
software house (not the retailer) 
what you've found and waiting 
while they fix it, 

These patched programs are 
called upgrades and can be distin- 
guished from one another by their 
version numbers. 

Me, I'm not interested in perfec- 
tion. It's the little mistakes we 
make in life that prove we are still 
human, click, still human, click, 
still human, click.... 



Buttons and balls 

VERY happy to see your article on 
mice, Mine gave up after one year, 
not with the symptoms you have 
described though. The buttons 
have been fine, my problem was 
rust on the rollers and the chrome 
deteriorating, causing the ball to 



AMIGA COMPUTING /u,w 1900 19 



Amiga 500 
Batman Pack 

£369,95 



MAIL 
ORDER 




MAIL 
ORDER 



A590 
Hard Drlvg 

£369.95 



6 BOND STREET, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK IP4 1 JE 



5A DOG'S HEAD STREET, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK (RETAIL) 



R3 



36A OSBORNE STREET, COLCHESTER, ESSEX (RETAIL) 



MAIL ORDER PURCHASE LINE (0473) 257158/210605 FAX NO. 0473 213457 



5th Gear 13 

668 Attack Sub IS. 

Altered Beast _ 16, 

Action F ighler „ 15, 

Andont Art of War IS, 

Ancient Art of War At Saa 16, 

Ants Head (Daiadisc) 12. 

Aquavenlura 24 

Asten'x _ 16, 

Axels Majie Hammer 13, 

Balance ot Power 1 990 1 5, 

Barbarian II (Palace) _ 16, 

Barbarian II (Psygnosis) 16. 

BantaA Knights 16, 

Batrjecness 16, 

Batman (The Movie) 16, 

Baffle of Britain 16, 

Baffle Squadron „ „.. 15, 

Betrayal 15. 

Beverley Hill Cops „ 15, 

Btoodwych 16, 

Bloodwych Data Disks 12. 

Blood Money 16, 

Beach Volley 16, 

Battlevalley 15, 

Black Tger 16, 

Blade Warrior 15, 

Blue Angels 16, 

Bad Company (ST) 15, 

Battle of Australflz 15, 

Bomber (ST) 19, 

Budakhan 16, 

Chase HQ 16, 

Chaos Strikes Back 16, 

Calilomta Games 13. 

Cabal 16, 

Conflict Europe 16. 

Conqueror 16, 

Continental Circuit 13. 

Carthage 15. 

Corvette 19. 

Commandos Compilation _ 15. 

Cyberball 13. 

Chicago 90 12, 

Commando 12. 

Chambers of Shadin 15. 

Oamodes 15, 

Day of the Tiger 15, 

Die Hard _ 16. 

Oan Dare 3 13, 

Defenders of the Earth 12. 

Dragons Breath ...... „ 19. 

Dragon Flight .,.„,.,.„ ,.„ 19. 

Dragons ot Flame « 16. 

Dungeon Master „., ... 16. 

Dungeon Master Editor „ 9. 

Dreadnought „ 13. 

Demons Tomb 13.99 

Drakken 19.99 

Dynamite Dux 16.99 

Double Dragon II 13.99 

Dogs ol War 12.99 

Dynamic Debugger 15.99 

Elite 15.99 

Epoch _ 15.99 

Escape from the Planet of Robot 

Monsters „ 13.99 

Eye of Hercules 16.99 

Flash Dragon 13.99 

F29 Retaliator 19.99 

F19 Stealth Fighlor 15.99 

F16 Combat Pilot 15.99 

Falcon 19.99 

Falcon Mission Disks 13.99 

Ferrari Formula One 16.99 

First Contact 15.99 

Final Battle 16.99 

Full Metal Planet 15.99 

Footballer of the Year 13.99 

Forgotten Worlds 13.99 

Fast Lane 12.99 



Frankenstein „ ...» 12.99 

Future Wars 16.99 

Fighting Soccer 16.99 

Fiendish Freddy „ 19.99 

Gazzers Super Soccer ....„.„ ., 16.99 

Grand Nallonal „ , „.... 19.99 

Grid Iron 16.99 

Gho6tbuster II - 16.99 

Gunship 15.99 

Gravity , 1 6.99 

Games Summer Edition - 13.99 

Gore 16.99 

Galaxy Force » _ 13.99 

Ghouls and Ghosts _ 16.99 

Hammerflst 16.99 

Highway Patrol „..., 15.99 

Hillslar 1 6.99 

Hard Driving . 13.99 

Heavy Metal „ 16.99 

Hound of Shadow __„ 16.99 

Hot Rod 16.99 

Hoyles Booko! Games 24.99 

Impertum 16.99 

Indiana Jones (Lucas Films) 16.99 

Indiana Jones (US Gold) 13.99 

Invanhoe 16.99 

Iron Lord 19.99 

Iron Tracker 12.99 

Infestation 16.99 

Interphase 15.99 

International Athletics 12.99 

Jack Boot 16.99 

Jack The Ripper 12.99 

Jumping Jackson 12.99 

Kenny Dalglish Soccer Match 13.99 

Kult 15.99 

Kick OH 12.99 

Kick Off II 12.99 

Kick Ofl Extra Time 9.99 

Krystal 19.99 

Killing Game Show 13.99 

Krypton X 12.99 

Laser Squad 12.99 

Leaving Terramis „ - 16.99 

Legend of Djel „ 16.99 

Leisure Suit Larry II 19.99 

Lightforce (Compilation) 16.99 

Lombard RAC. Rally _ 16.99 

Last Nln|a II 16.99 

Lost Patroi 16.99 

Liverpool 15.99 

Last Sluntman _ 12.99 

Man Utd 16.99 

Manic Mission _ 16.99 

Mlcroprose Soccer 15.99 

Midwinter 15.99 

Majic Johnson ._ 12.99 

Moonwalker _ 16.99 

Murder in Venice „. 15.99 

Matrix Maruaders 16.99 

Magnum 4 Compilation 19.99 

Nlnia Spirit 16.99 

Ninja Warrior 16.99 

New Zealand Story 13.99 

North and South 15.99 

Nevermind , 13.99 

Operation Thunderbolt 16.99 

Oriental 15.99 

Onslaught 13.99 

Overfander 12.99 

Paperboy 12.99 

Pinball Mapc 16.99 

Police Quest II 16.99 

Poofs of Radiance 16.99 

Populous 16.99 

Planet Busters „ 13.99 

Populous Data Disks 9.99 

Powerdrome 16.99 

Precious Metal (Compilation) 16.99 



Premier Collection 1 or 2 


...19.99 


Player Manager „ 


...12.99 


P47 










... ' 6 99 


Panic Station „ 


...13.99 


Quartz „ _ 


16.99 

...15.99 




...13.99 


Quest for Time Bird _ 

Rainbow Islands 


...19.99 

... 16.99 






R.V.F. Honda _.. 


... 1 5.99 






Risk „ 


_. 13.99 


Rally Cross 


... 12.99 




...13.99 


Rock and Roll 


... 13.99 


S.E.U.C.K 

Scramble Spirits 

Skate or Die 

Skidz 


...19.99 
..13.99 
... 16.99 




,., 16.99 




... 12.99 

... 13.99 




... 29.99 




...13.99 


Starflight 


...16.99 


Stryx 


...13.99 


Stridor 


...16.99 




...19.99 


Star Trek 5 „ 


...24.99 




...12.99 




...12.99 


Story So Far 3 (Compilation) 


...12.99 


Stunt Car 


... 15.99 


Shlnobl 


...13.99 




...13.99 


Scroll 


...12.99 






Starwars Compilation 


...16.99 
...16.99 


Silphaed _ . 


...19.99 




...13.99 






Shadow of the Beast _ 

Star Biaze „.. „ 


24.99 

...13.99 




...15.99 




...13.99 


Sim City 


...19.99 




...13.99 


Super League Soccer ..,„ 


15.99 
...16.99 
...15.99 


Triad II (Compilation) 

TV Sports Football 


16.99 
...16.99 


Trivial Pursuit (Family Edition) 


..16.99 
...16.99 






TV Sports Basketball 


...19.99 


The Gales 


...16.99 


Thrill time Platinum (Compilation) 
Tower of Babel 


...15,99 
...16.99 








...16.99 


Typhoon Thompson _ 

Ultimate Golf 


.16.99 
...16.99 
...16.99 




...13.99 








...16.99 


UMS II 


...15 99 


Ultima V 


...19.99 


Waterloo 


...15.99 


Wild Streets 


...15.99 


World Cup Soccer '90 

W.E.C. Le Mans 


13.99 




...16.99 


Warp 




Winners (Compilation) .. 


19.99 
...16.99 


Xenon II _ 


...16.99 


X-Oul 


...13.99 



AMIGA 500 
"Flight of Fantasy" 

Modulator, F29 Retaliator, 
Rainbow Islands, Deluxe Paint I 

£369.95 



AMIGA 500 
Batman Pack 

Modulator, BATMAN, New 

Zealand Story, Interceptor, 

Deluxe Paint II 

£369.95 



AMIGA 500 + 1084S 

Either Pack above + Colour 
Monitor 

£599.95 



AMIGA 500 

Class of 90'S 
Educational Pack 

£369.95 



COMMODORE 1084S 

Colour Monitor 

£249.95 



Amiga External Drive 

Power Drive 1 Meg DS 

£79.95 



Amiga Memory 
Expansion 

Power Drive 1 Meg DS 

£79.95 



A590 HARD DRIVE 

20 Meg Hard Drive 

£369.95 



CHEQUES AND POSTAL ORDERS PAYABLE TO SOFTSELLERS. POST AND PACKING FREE IN UK. OVERSEAS £1.50 per item. Subject to availability and price change without 
notice. Not all titles released at time of going In press. Shop prices may vary, but personal callers can claim advertised discounts on production ol cut-off slip. 



TITLE 


C0MP 


COST 






































Amiga 500 

Clast ol SO Pack 

£520.95 








TOTAL COST £ 







Name 

Address. 



Tel No 

Have you ordered from us before 



YesD 
Amc June 



NoD 



Atari Lynx 
£179.95 



20 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



LETTERS 



stick. I now have myself a 
Contriver mouse, which so far 
agrees with your report except that 
you didn't mention that when you 
get the mouse you have to use the 
hall from your old mouse, so don't 
throw the old one out! 

VC Langley, 

BFPO 6, 

Are you saying that your Contriver 

mouse came without a ball? If so, 

phone them and whinge. 



gamma version 0.99a). 

Both these programs will be 
available on disc from any rep- 
utable PD pusher or can be down- 
loaded from any Amiga BBS north 
its salt. 



Expansion 
worries 



MY A500 has insufficient memory 
In run a word processing package 
and I want lo buy an expansion 
module. Would you please advise 
me whether fitting such an expan- 
sion affects my rights under the 
purchase guarantee. 

SA Blanks, 
London SE9. 
You can fit many half-megabyte 
internal ram expansions, for 
example the official Commodore 
A501 unit, on to the bus provided 
underneath the A500 ivithout 
invalidating your guarantee. 

Larger expansion boards re- 
quire you to open up your Amiga 
and fiddle about a bit. Unless this 
is done by an expert recom- 
mended by your Amiga dealer you 
can wave bye-bye to your war- 
ranty. 



Keen on comms 

COULD you please advise me on 
one of the best comms software for 
the Amiga. I am using a Linnet 
1200 modem with MicroLink, on 
an A500 with extra ram. 

Lee Kitching, 
Hull, 
Yorkshire. 
The two best Amiga comms pro- 
grams ore both in the public- 
domain, released as shareware. 

Access! vl.42 is generally 
accepted as the easiest to use, 
although it doesn't cater for 
Zmodem and the author appears 
to have ceased development. 

fR-Comm, on the other hand, is 
very much still being worked on. 
The last general release. v0.94a, 
has many advanced features and is 
the program I use. 

By registering at a cost of $40 
you will be sent the official 1.0 
release which, at the time of going 
to press, is imminent (we're up to 



Lamer tamer 

IT may be of use to the readers of 
your excellent magazine to know of 
one of the effects of a particularly 
nasty virus doing the rounds. 

I recently had a problem with a 
few read/write errors on a couple 
of discs. When this happened to 
my Workbench disc I tried to make 
another copy, only to find that 
although the drive light came on, 
nothing happened. The message 
stuck at "reading 0, 79 to go". 

Any attempt to copy any of my 
other discs produced the same 
effect. 

Since the discs worked normally 
otherwise, and as 1 am new to com- 
puters. I took my Amiga back to the 
dealers, Gordon Harwood 
Computers. As always they were 
very helpful. When they cleaned 
the heads for me and tested it with 
one of their own discs it seemed to 
work OK. They suggested that I get 
a virus killer, and they would be 
happy to check my discs for me if 
the problem continued. 

When 1 got home I found that 
the machine still would not copy 
any discs. A telephone call pur- 
chased a copy of VirusX 4.0 and 
the culprit was found. Virtually all 
my discs were infected with Lamer 
11. The virus killer was equally 
effective at destroying the virus as 
at finding it. Now everything works 
properly again. 

Alan Parsons, 
Burlon-on-Trent, 
Staffordshire. 
/ am interested that you "pur- 
chased" a copy of VirusX 4.0. Do 
tell me who sold it to you, and how 
much you were charged. 



Angry swapper 

I FIND it very annoying to have a 
program that comes on two or more 
discs to find that it still wants me 
to plav ping-pong with the internal 
drive, while the other sits there 
gathering dust. Yes 1 know that by 
not using the other drive you save 
30k. Big deal! 

Program writers have got some 
400k to play with, 30k isn't going 
to make much difference. After all, 
Commodore 64 programmers still 
put out some amazing programs in 



Learning curve 



RICHARD GRAY is quite right 
(Letters, February). What the heck 
is an OC command? I wrote the 
article and I tried to explain what I 
was talking about, but it helps to he 
reminded thai a program like 
Protext isn't plain sailing - can he 
quite intimidating in fact. 

Large programs are normally 
quite frightening to begin with. I 
used Protext for six months or so 
without using an OC command, 
but in time you sit down with the 
program running and the manual 
open and you read magazines. 

Gradually you get familiar with 
the thing, and that's how you find 
out that OC commands send raw 
numbers to the printer. 

This isn't an isolated discovery; 
it happens around the time that 
you realise how printers are 
driven, and you sus out the escape 
codes, After you've understood 
that, the first thing you do when 
you get hold of a printer (it hap- 
pens every day...) is look up the 
control codes. 

So you learn about printers and 
about Protext simultaneously, and 



its tiny memory, 

However, if 30k does mean so 
much, what about loading it in 
from one of the drives? It's what 
they're there for. If it's still not 
practical, what about the half meg 
expansion users? 

It should still be possible to 
have the ability to use both disc 
drives if you have a memory 
expansion, even if you have to 
switch off the task priority of the 
disc drive when it's not in use to 
make best use of the processor 
power of the Amiga. 

I think that when all has been 
said, making people use a single 
drive is not on. It's sloppy pro- 
gramming and, worse than that, it's 
going back to the way the 64 used 
to work. There is no excuse for it. 

Thank you very much for read- 
ing my thoughts. Now I must go 
back into my comfortable jacket, 
One day I might work out how to 
get my hands out of these damn 
sleeves.... 

Carl Beech, 
Stoke-on-Trent, 
Staffordshire. 
The Amiga games industry is 
beginning to wake up to this extra 
drive and ram problem. Games are 
being produced that work with 
more than one floppy drive and 



learning about the one influences 
your attitude to the other. 

That's true of any program that's 
got real power. You can do quite a 
lot of simple stuff straight away, 
but beyond that even the friendli- 
est Wimp front end can't replace 
manual learning and exploration. 

That's true of word processors, 
certainly true of databases, and 
doubly true of a programming envi- 
ronment, where you're learning not 
just the program but the process 
that you carry out with it. 

I don't think this is a totally sat- 
isfactory state of affairs, but then I 
was trying to think of anything at 
all beyond the dumb basic level 
that's any different. Microwaves? 
Not even. Certainly not video play- 
ers. Driving a car? Time to crash.... 

So if you're a commercial user 
you take a course, and if you're 
spending your own money you 
browse and play and read the man- 
ual in bed, 

It takes money or it takes time, 

but it takes, A cup of tea does help. 

Peter Ceresole, 

London W14. 



use the extra ram if it is there. But 
they are few and far between and I 
suspect it'll be a cold day in hell 
before you persuade the companies 
which produce the quick ST ports 
of coin-op conversions to do any- 
thing but trash the OS and jump 
illegally into rom. 



Seek and 
ye shall find 

ON reading the February issue I 
noticed a tetter from Graham Hy of 
Edinburgh in which he bemoaned 
the death of your column devoted 
to adventures. 

I have to say that I agree whole- 
heartedly with him. It was one of 
the best columns of this type, deal- 
ing in depth, as it did with just one 
or two adventures per article. 

JD Heywood, 
Portsmouth, 

Therein lies the problem -just one 
or two adventures per article. 
Adventures (aka role-playing 
games] are being released at a phe- 
nomenal rate, up to a dozen or so 
every month. To be able to cover 
the best of the crop as quickly as 



AMIGA COMPUTING /une 1990 21 



LETTERS 



Where do we go from here? 



possible, we moved the adventure 
reviews into the normal games 
reviews pages. 

If you have a closer look you '11 
find that we have managed to 
increase, not decrease, the pages 
given over to adventures and role- 
playing games. 1 suspect what you 
really miss is the excellent Tim 
White artwork. 



Font finding 
mission 

ACCORDING to the WB 1.3 
Enhancer Manual, FF (Fast Fonts) 
can also be used to replace the 
default system font with a plain 
8x8 pixel font. However, after 
defining an 8x8 font using FEd. I 
cannot replace the default font 
with my own. 

I have tried using the fontname, 
path, cd-ing to the font dir, copying 
the font to ram, all to no avail. I 
can't even load Topaz 8 point. Any 
ideas? 

Brian Nisbct, 
East Kilbride, 
Scotland, 
FF will only work with non-propor- 
tional fonts, that is, fonts which 
give exactly the same screen space 
to every character - eight pixels 
high and eight pixels across. 

A number of public domain pro- 
grams allow you to replace the 
default fonts with any other. Any 
reputable PD pusher mil be able to 
help you. 



Automation 

THERE are two things I've discov- 
ered that will seem very simple to 
computer experts. But 1 find both 
useful in using an Amiga for semi- ■ 
business purposes. 

When I turn on my Amiga with 
a word processing disc in its sec- 
ond drive I want the WP program 
to load automatically, without hav- 
ing to click on various icons to get 
there. But if ! have put a spread- 
sheet disc in the second drive, then 
I want the spreadsheet to load. 

As a computer illiterate it took 
me a while to realise that the way 
to do this is to use CLI to alter the 
startup-sequence by adding, just 
before the end: 

if exists dfl;aprog 
execute dfl:aprcg 
endif 

Then on the WP disc you use Ed to 
create a script called aprog along 



the fallowing lines: 

say "Now loading WP' 
ed dfl: 

Scribble! ;or whatever 
cd dfO: 

and so on with any other disc you 
want to load automatically. If tbere 
is no disc with an aprog script on it 
in the second drive, you just get 
the workbench in the normal way. 
HC Rumbelow, 
London SW19. 



Dodgy 
distributors 

THE distribution system for home 
computer software and extensions 
are inefficient, infuriating and all 
too often criminally incompetent. 
It should be improved. 

There are many reasons for this. 
Asking the retailers, you receive a 
great many explanations why. 
Some say it is the software houses, 
who promise to release the pro- 
gram next month so the retailer 
produces an advert counting on 
that. Then the software house 
doesn't release the program until 
four months later. 

Others say it is the crackers 
who, by violating copyrights, 
remove the necessary economic 
foundation for a proper distribu- 
tion. 

The users' reasons are somewhat 
different: It is those damn get-rich- 
quick artists who set themselves up 
as retailers because they have 
heard it is "the future" with lots of 
money in it, they don't care a hoot 
about computing or their cus- 
tomers, they just want the money. 

Or it's the computer manufactur- 
ers who, every year or two, make a 
new kind of computer which can't 
use any of the software you bought 
for your old one? 

The crackers sav that if the 



Cracking up 

MY computer has developed 
cracks in the plastic. I haven't 
bashed it, they just appeared. It 
doesn't get too hot in my room, 
so I can't think how they got 
there. Is there any explanation? 



WHAT'S been your most enjoyable 
game? I know mine, it was Atic 
Atac on the Spectrum. Why? Well, 
back in the good old days when 
computers were a new thing to the 
home user, nothing quite like them 
had been seen before. Games such 
as Atic Atac, Manic Miner and 
Jetpack amazed everybody who 
saw them. 

They were instantly addictive 
and totally playable. Nowadays 
computers are no longer new to us; 
once the user came to grips with 
the 8 bit micros he wanted bigger 
and better. Enter the 16 bit 
machines. 

What next? 32 bit micros are too 
expensive for the home user, and 
will be for many years to come, 
and consoles are not versatile 
enough. Therefore 16 bit will be 
the limit for most of us. 

The point I'm trying to make is 
that something new always draws 
our attention so people will start to 
look elsewhere for their kicks. 

I have owned a Spectrum and 
C64, presently owning an Amiga. 
While owning a Spectrum I would 
play virtually any game, on the C64 
my choice narrowed down, and 



retailers delivered what they 
promised in their ads, and if the 
software houses did not charge 
such ridiculously high prices for 
their games, there would be no 
need for their Robin Hood activi- 
ties, and nobody would want the 
often rather miscopied copies of 
programs that they make. 

Do you really think anybody 
would go to all that trouble - 
spend a month or two cracking a 
game without getting paid - if he 
had not been badly burned and 
frustrated trying to buy games 
legally? 

The reason most crackers live in 
other countries like Holland, 
Belgium, Germany and Denmark is 
because the situation there is even 
worse than it is in Britain. 

It is all true. We need to change. 



Jakob Aggernaes, 

Copenhagen, 

Denmark. 



St Albans, 
Hertfordshire, 

Haven't the foggiest. But don't 
go looking in too many mirrors. 



Worth the wonga? 

DON'T stop reading this letter 
because its about piracy and soft- 
ware cost again, Stop and ponder 
at this... 
Tell me whv £25 to £50 is the 



with the Amiga I only really play 
two types of games - puzzle solv- 
ing and role-playing. 

Nowadays shoot-'em-ups, beat- 
'em-ups and the like simply do not 
turn me on. Many people I know 
also share the same viewpoint. 

I think that during the following 
years shoot-'em-ups and the like 
will become more unpopular. 
Games which do well will be the 
puzzle solving, strategy and RPG 
types. Games which will do partic- 
ularly well will be original ones 
like Populous. 

Denis Cowie, 

Cleethorpes, 

South Humbcrside. 

My favourite game was Ant Attack 
on the Spectrum, which was writ- 
ten in a mixture of Basic and 
machine code and only came on 
microdrive if I remember correctly. 
Ah for an Amiga version... 

There are games programmers 
out there who solemnly believe 
that we'll jump straight from 16 bit 
to 64 bit home computers. Some 
are even developing in theory now 
in preparation for the big day. 
Bunch of nerds if you ask me. 



acceptable price for Amiga games 
and why the ST versions are often 
cheaper. I can tell you why. It's 
because we are stupid enough to 
pay that price for it! 

How much work does the soft- 
ware house actually do to produce 
a new game? What is original about 
a large percentage of the software 
that is developed? How often do 
the software houses have to write a 
new game from the bare bones 
using new techniques? Hardlv at 
all. 

All our money goes into piracy 
protection techniques. Why don't 
they sell the software for a price 
between £5 and £15, then everyone 
could afford it and not so manv 
people would be interested in rip- 
ping off copies of the software. Do 
we see Code Masters and 
Mastertronic going bust? I doubt it. 

The music business has the 
same problem as software suppli- 
ers. Do you see them sticking a 
dongle on the album or giving us a 
glass prism to stick in our ear so 
we can listen to a cassette? No. 
They market their products at a 
reasonable price and they make a 
healthy profit, 

So when the next mega game 
appears in the shops at £30, who 
will laugh the hardest - you with a 



22 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



Special Reserve 



Best PRICES, Best GAMES, Best SERVICE 

ANNUAL 

MEMBERSHIP 

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Bi-monthly Buyer's Guides, each with reviews of 40 games and more. 
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■ Myth. Written by Magnetic Scrolls, authors of 
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Myth includes the famous Magnetic Scrolls 
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A miga Software Check out Xenon 2 . It's a Meqablast at £6.99. 



688ATTACKSUB 16.99 

A.PB 12.99 

AMOS (GAMES CREATOR] ...27.49 

AMOS SPRITES 1000 9.99 

AMOS VI0I 01GITISER 51,49 

ANARCHY 14,99 

ARKANOtD 12.99 

ARTHUR (INFOCOM) 19.99 

BACKGAMMON PROFESSIONAL 12.99 

BAD COMPANY .15-99 

BALANCE OF POWER 1S90 ...15.49 

BARBARIAN 2 (PALACE) 18.43 

BARDS TALE 1 7.99 

BARDS TALE 2 16.49 

BATTLE OF BRITAIN 16.99 

BATTLE CHESS 16.49 

BATTLEHAWKS 1942 16.49 

BATTLETECH 0NFOCOMI 16.49 

BEACH VOLLEY 15.99 

BEYOND 20RK (INFOCOM) . 24.99 

BLACKTIGER 1649 

BLADE WARRIOR 15.99 

BLOOD MONEY 14.49 

BLOODWYCH 15.49 

BLOODWYCH DATA DISK 9.99 

BOMBER 18.49 

BOMBER MISSION DISK 13.49 

BRIDGE PLAYER 3150 GALACTIC* 18.49 
C-LIGHT (3-D ANIMATION 

DRAWING) 31.49 

CABAL 15.49 

CARTOON CAPERS 1! 49 

CASTLE MASTER 15.99 

CHAMBERS OF SHAOLIN 14.99 

CHASE HO 15.99 

CHESS CHAMPION 2175 18.49 

CHESS PLAYER 2150 15.99 

CHESSMASTER 2000 15.49 

CHRONOOUEST2 17.49 

COLLOSLIS CHESS X 15.49 

COLORADO 15.99 

CONQUEROR 15.99 

CONTINENTAL CIRCUS 11.99 

CRACK DOWN 16.99 

CUTTHROATS [INFOCOM] 16.49 

CYBERBALL 12.99 

CYCLES 15.99 

DAMOCLES 15.49 

DATA STORM 12.49 

DAY OF THE VIPER 16.49 

DEJAVU 15.49 

DEJAVU2 15. 43 

DELUXE MUSIC CONST SET. ,46.47 

DELUXE PAINT III 51.49 

DEMONS TOMB 15.99 

DEMONS WINTER (SSI] 17.49 

DOUBLE DRAGON 12.99 

DOUBLE DRAGON 2 13.49 

DRAGON NINJA 15.99 

DRAGONS LAIR (I MEG) 28.49 

DRAGONS BREATH 18.99 

DRAGONS OF FLAME (SSI) ...17.49 

DRIVING FORCE 16.49 

DUNGEON MASTER (1 MEG) 15-49 
DUNGEON MASTER EDITOR ...7.49 
DUNGEON QUEST 16.49 



DYNAM:C DEBUGGER 16.4 

ELVIRA -MISTRESS OF 

THE DARK 19.4 

ENCHAMTERIINFOCOMI 1B.4 

ESCAPE FROM SINGE S CASTLE ...28 4 

F16 COMBAT PILOT 15.9 

F16 FALCON 184 

f2d retaliator 15,9 

fed. of free traders 19,4 

fehhahi formula 1 164 

Fiendish fred'S big top fun, 174 

final battle 15-9 

fire brigade -kiev 1 1 meg] 16 9 
flight sim 2 west europe 

scenery disk 13.9 

flight simulator 2 25,4 

football director 2 12 9 

full metal planete 15.4 

fun school 2 (2-6) 12.4 

fun school 2 (6-8) 12.4 

fun school 2 (8.) 12 4 

future wars 164 

gauntlet 2 7,9 

ghouls n ghosts 164 

gnome ranger (level 9) ...9 9 
go player professional 

(oriental chess) 18 4 

gold rush 1 (sierra) 16.4 

grand prix circuit 16.4 

GRAVITY 16.4 

GREG NORMAN S ULTIMATE GOLF 1 6 .9 
GRIDIHON (US FOOTBALL) .15 4 

GUNSHIP 15-9 

HAMMERFIST 15.9 

HAP.DDRIVIN 12.9 

HARLEY DAVIDSON 15.4 

HILLSFAR (SSI) 17.4 

HITCH HIKERS GUIDE 39.9 

HOLLYWOOD HUINX 24.9 

HOME OFFICE KIT (KINO 
WORDS 2 0. MAXI PLAN. INFO 
FILE. PAGESETTER, ARTISTS- 
CHOICE, CALEFONTS) 66 4 

HONDA RVF 750 15-4 

HOUND OF SHADOW 16.9 

HOYLES BOOK OF GAMES ..22 4 

IMPERIUM 164 

INDIANA JONES ACTION 11.9 

INDIANA JONES ADVENTURE . 16 9 

INFESTATION 14-S 

INFIDEL (INFOCOM) 17.4 

INTERPHASE 15.9 

IRON LORD 15.9 

IT CAME FROM THE DESERT (1 I.1E6 164 
I.CF.T.D DATA DISK (1 MEG) .10.4 

IVANHOE 15.9 

JACK NICKLAUS GOLF 16.4 

JACK NICKLALIS GOLF DATA DISS 1 8.9 

JIGSAW 12.9 

JOURNEY (INFOCOM) 19.9 

KEEP THE THIEF 17.4 

KICKOFF 12.4 

KICK OFF EXPANSION DISK .7.4 

KID GLOVES 16.4 

KILLING GAME SHOW 15.4 

KIND WORDS 2.0 (WP) Z9.9 



KINGS QUEST 1.2 4 3 (SIERRA 21.49 

KINGS OUEST 4 (SIERRA) 21 .49 

KLAX 12.99 

KNIGHTS OF CRYSTALLION ...19.99 

LASER SQUAD 12.99 

LEADERBOARD BIRDIE 16.49 

LEISURE SUIT LARRY I (SIERRA) 16.99 
LEISURE SUIT LARRY 2 (SIERRA) 21 .49 
LEISURE SUIT LARRY 3 (SIERRA)21 .99 

LIFE AND DEATH 15.49 

LIGHT FORCE (R-TYPE. 

VOYAGFR BID CHALLENGE IK*) 15 99 

LIVERPOOL 11.99 

LURKING HORROR 2499 

MAGNUM 4 (COMPILATION) . ..1B99 

MANCHESTER UNITED 15.99 

MANHUNTER SAN FRANCISCO 

(SIERRA) 18.49 

MANIAC MANSION 16.99 

MATRIX MARAUDERS .12.49 

MAViS BEACON TEACHES TYPING 17.99 

MIDWINTER 18.49 

MIND FOREVEH VOYAGING 19.99 

MOONMIST (INFOCOM) 19.99 

MUSIC X 124.99 

NEVERMIND 12.49 

NINJA SPIRIT 15.99 

NINJA WARRIORS 16.49 

OIL IMPERIUM 16.49 

OMEGA 17.49 

OMNIPLAY BASKETBALL 15.49 

OMNI-PLAY HORSE RACING, ,15.49 

ONSLAUGHT 15.49 

OOZE 15.99 

OPERATION THUNDERBOLT 15 99 

PAPERBOY 12.99 

PAUL GASGCINE SUPER SOCCER 14.99 

PERSONAL NIGHTMARE 18.99 

PHANTASIE 3 (SSI) 17.49 

PHOBIA ..12.49 

PHOTON PAINT 2 0(1 MEG) ...54.99 

PIPEMANIA 15.49 

PIRATES 15.99 

PLANET BUSTERS 1S.49 

PLANETFALL (INFOCOM) 24.99 

PLAYER MANAGER 12.49 

POLICE OUEST I (SIERRA) ...15.99 

POPULOUS 16-49 

POPULOUS PROMISED LANDS. 7.99 

POWERDROME 16.49 

PRO TENNIS TOUR 16.49 

PROTEXT WORD PROCESSOR 64.99 
PUBLISHERS CHOICE DTP (KIND 
WORDS 2, PAGESETTER 1 2, 
ARTISTS CHOICE, CAL FONTS, 

USER SCRIPT) (1 MEG) 59.99 

OUEST FOR THE TIMEBIRD .1699 

OUESTRON 2 (SSI) 17.49 

RAINBOW ISLAND 1S.99 

RAMROD 16.99 

RED LIGHTNING (SSI) 19-99 

HISK 12-49 

ROBOCOP —15.49 

ROCK-N ROLL 12.99 

SARGON 3 CHESS 13.97 

SCAPEGHOST{LEVEL9) 12.49 



SCRABBLE DE LUXE 1299 

SEASTALKER (INFOCOM) 19.99 

SHADOWGATE 15.99 

SHERLOCK (INFOCOM) 24 99 

SHERMAN M4 16.99 

SHINOBI 12.99 

SHOOT EM-UP CONSTR KIT ...18.49 

SIDEWINDER 7.49 

SILKWORM 12.99 

SIM CITY TERRAIN EDITOR 9.99 

SPACE ACE 27 49 

SPACE HARRIERS 1099 

SPACE OUEST 1 (SIERRA) .1649 
SPACE OUEST 2 [SIERRA) ...16-49 
SPACE OUEST 3 (SIERRA) .21.49 

SPACE ROGUE 17.49 

SPELLBREAKER (INFOCOM) 24.99 

STAR BLAZE 16.49 

STAR COMMAND [SSI] 19.99 

STAR WARS TRILOGY 15.99 

STARCROSS (INFOCOM) 24.99 

STARFLIGHT 1699 

STARTER KIT [KIND WORDS 2 0. 

FUSION PAWT, SUPER SKI. 

CRAZY CARS, MINIATURE GOLF) 43.49 

STEVE DAVIS SNOOKER 12 49 

STRIDER 16.99 

STRYX 12.49 

STUNT CAR RACER 15.99 

3UPEHCARS 13.49 

SWITCHBLADE 13.49 

SWORDS OF TWILIGHT 16 49 

TALESPIN ADVENTURE 

CREATOR (1 MEG) 18.99 

TEAM YANKEE 17.49 

THE COLONY (1 MEG) 17.49 

THE LOST PATROL 15.99 

THEME PARK MYSTERY 15.99 

TIME 18.99 

TOWER OF BABEL 16.49 

TRIAD VOL 3 ISPEEDBALL. 

BLOOD MONEY. ROCKET RANGER) 19.49 

TRIAD VOL2 

(MENACE. BAAL. TETRIS) 14.99 

TURBOOUTRUN 16.49 

TV SPORTS BASKETBALL ...18.49 

TYPHOON THOMPSON 1299 

ULTIMAS ...17.99 

UNINVITED 15.49 

UNTOUCHABLES 15.99 

VENUS 13.49 

VETTE (CORVETTE) 18.49 

WAR IN MIDDLE EARTH 15.49 

WARHEAD 15.99 

WAYNE GRETZKY HOCKEY ., 1599 

WILD STREETS 15.99 

WINDWALKER 17.49 

WISHBRINGEP. (INFOCOM) .1999 
WITNESS (INFOCOM) 1949 

WORKBENCHl-3 1349 

WORLD BOXING MANAGER 12 99 

X-OUT 13.49 

XENOMORPH 15.49 

ZORK 1 (INFOCOM) 16.49 

ZORK TRILOGY [INFOCOM) ..29.99 
ZORK ZERO (INFOCOM) 1999 



Special Offers 



ADVENTURE CONSTRUCTION KIT 11. 

ARCHIPELAGOS 6. 

AUSTERLtTZ (BATTLE OF) 11. 

BAAL 6. 

BALL1ST1X 6. 

BALLYHOO (INFOCOM) 9. 

BATMAN THE MOVIE 9. 

BATTLE SQUADRON 12. 

BLACK CAULDRON 7. 

BLACK LAMP 7. 

BUGGY BOY 9. 

CAPTAIN BLOOD S. 

CARRIER COMMAND , .7. 

CHRONO OUEST 9. 

CONFLICT EUROPE t. 

CORRUPTION 9. 

DRAKKHEN 13. 

EDDIE EDWARDS SUPER SKI 4. 

ELIMINATOH(1.2AMIGASONLY) 4. 

ELITE ,...». 

EYE OF HORUS ». 

F16 FALCON MISSION DISK 7. 



POWERDRIFT4.99 



FISH! 9.99 

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2 . EXPANSION 10,99 

GUILD OF THIEVES 9.99 

HIT DISKS VOLUME 2 ...8.40 

HOSTAGES .7.49 

HYBRIS 7.49 

INGRID'S BACK (LEVEL 9) 7.99 

JINXTER 9.99 

KING OF CHICAGO 9.99 

KRISTAL 8.99 

KULT 7.99 

LANCELOT (LEVEL 9) 9.49 

LEATHERNECKS S.99 

LOMBARD RAC RALLY 10.99 

LORDS OP THE RISING SUN .....9.99 

MENACE 6.99 

M1CROPROSE SOCCER ....8.49 

MtLLENtUM 2.2 6.99 

NEW ZEALAND STORY .....9.99 

NIGEL MANSELL'S GRAND PRSX 5.99 

NORTH AND SOUTH 10.49 

PACLAND 6.49 

PACMANIA 6.99 

PASSING SHOT (TENNIS) .8.99 

PAWN 9.99 

PHOTON PAINT 6.49 



PURPLE SATURN DAY .7.49 

ROCKET RANGER 8.99 

SHADOW OF THE BEAST 12.99 

SHOGUN {INFOCOM) 15.49 

SIM CITY 14.99 

SKYCMASE „ 7.49 

SKYFOX 5.M 

SPEEDBALL ..6.49 

STARGLIDER 6.49 

STARGLIDER 2 9.99 

SUPER WONDERBOY _ 7.48 

TEENAGE QUEEN (STRIP POKER) 8.49 

THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING S.99 

THREE STOOGES (CINEMAWARE) 6.99 

THUNDERBIRDS 5.99 

TIME & MAGIKJLEVEL9) 6.49 

TRIVIAL PURSUIT 6.49 

TURBO CUP 6.49 

TV SPORTS FOOTBALL (U.S ) 11.99 

UMS- UNIVERSAL MILITARY SIMULATOH...7.49 

VIRUS 6.99 

VOYAGER 9.49 

WATERLOO 10.48 

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT 8.99 

XENON II, MEGABLAST 6.99 

SWORD OF SODAN 7.99 



ATARI LYNX 




(En sleek al time of publication) 

Atari Lynx colour 

handheld games 

system with mains 

powerpack and California Games cartridge. 

Blue Lightning 21.99 Chips Challenge 21.99 
Electro Cop 21.99 Gates of Zendecon 21.99 



£154.99 



Sony 3.5"ds/dd disk 69p each 
Amiga 512k expansion £99.39 

'genuine item wilh clock) 



SALES LINES 0279 600204. please note that thehe.s 

A SURCHARGE OF SOP PER SAME FOH ORDERS PLACED BY TELEPHONE. 



Post Code 
Computer 



INNEVITABLV. SOME OF THE ABOVE GAMES MAY NOT YET BE RELEASED. ALL GAMES ARE DESPATCHED AS SCON AS POSSIBLE 

" hce: 2 South Block. TV 

' tea. no. 424 3532 51 



^im^Mfe^T*^,, 



Name & Address 



_Tel. 



•5.25T3.57 

-3.07*TAPE 



Special Reserve or Official Secrets 
P.O. Box 847, Harlow, CM21 9PH 



Existing members please 
enter your Membership No. 

Special Reserve £5 UK, £6 EEC, £7 World or 

Official Secrets £27.99 UK, £32 EEC, £36 World 

with Drakkhen I I or wtth Sim City I | AMC0MP 
and Myth I 1 and Myth I 1 



PLEASE ENTER MEMBERSHIP FEE 



Hem 
Item 



Hem 



Software Prices indurie UK or EEC Postage. 

World orders please add £1 .00 per item. 
For blank disks add 1 0% EEC or 25% World. 


£ 


Overseas orders must be paid by credit card. 





























Credit card expiry date 

-CHEQUE'* POSTAL ORDER/" ACCESS.' - VISA 




AMIGA SPECIALISTS 

TURNS THE AMIGA WORLD UPSIDE DOWN 



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24 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



LETTERS 



£30 hole in your pocket or the soft- 
ware supplier with more money in 
the bank than most of us will see in 
a lifetime? 

CJ Clarke, 
Newbury, 
Berkshire. 



LPRINT no work 

ACCORDING to the Amiga Basic 
Manual and Amiga Basic Inside 
and Out, I should be able to use the 
Star LC10 escape codes within the 
LPRINT command, but for some 
reason they are being ignored. 

Do I have a fault with my 
Amiga, LC10 printer, or am I using 
the wrong driver? 

SMallon, 
Honiton, 
Devon. 
No worries. To send printer control 
codes from Amiga Basic you don't 
use LPRINT, you open a file to the 
printer and send thein us parame- 
ters in the CHRS function. For 
instance: 

OPEN *PRT;' FOR OUTPUT AS 5 
PS HIT »5,CHR$(12) 

which would send the normal 
printer code to throw a new page. 



Sid upgrade 

THANKS for Sid and the return of 
the cover disc. After reading those 
magic words in the April issue, I 
thought to myself "Mass 
Telepathy". I'm glad you have risen 
to the challenge. 

I have put Sid into my startup- 
sequence so it's loaded automati- 



cally SD RAM: DHO:. I'd like it to 
boot up SID VOL RAM: but we 
can't always get what we want. Or 
can we? Have there been any 
improvements to it? And will we 
be getting the upgraded version? 

Dave Nosurname, 
Notown, 
Nocounty. 
Jeff says the latest version of Sid is 
1.06, and there have indeed been 
quite a few improvements. Like 
having Sid load from the startup- 
sequence in shrink mode. 

C'mon, Dave, you know how to 
get the latest version. Register with 
Timm Martin, the author. And tell \ 
him about the VOL bit. sounds like 
a good idea to me. 



April fools 



IN your April issue you published 
a review on the Amiga 
Soundblaster which looks reason- 
ably good. It is priced at £44.99 
and, after reading it. 1 thought no 
more of it until I came to a special 
readers offer where I see 
Soundblaster selling for only 
£34.99. 

It was hard to believe, I thought. 
A brand new product like that! It's 
amazing, Amiga Computing are 
simply the best. Then all of a sud- 
den I come back to reality. It's for 
the &#(!?) Atari ST! 

Please could you explain to me 
why any Amiga user is going to 
want to make use of the Atari ST's 
"amazing" sound quality? And 
why are you singing the ST's 
praises? And as much as I admire 
vou all, I am going to have to report 
you to the AASTA (Anti Atari ST 
Association) for treason. 

Then again, seeing as you regu- 
larly produce such a high quality 



Sorry, sold out 



THIS is for all readers who do not 
subscribe. Picture the scene. It is 
about that time of the month, the 
time when you start to thinking, is 
it in the shops or isn't it? 

So you wander down to your 
local newsagents and peruse the 
computer section for your fave 
computer magazine. What do you 
find, loads of copies of last month's 
Ess Tee mag, loads of copies of this 
month's Ess Tee mag but no Amiga 
Computing, last month's or this 
month's. So you try another shop, 
and another, until you have visited 
more shops than a Mars Bar rep. 

I know this happens, I've done 
it. But now I subscribe and things 
are different. No longer do 1 walk 



the streets like an Ess Tee owner 
looking for a games arcade search- 
ing for THE magazine. It drops reg- 
ular as clockwork on the door mat. 
So don't think about subscrib- 
ing, do it. It'll save you a lot of 
heartache as well as shoe leather. 

K Bucchan, 
London NIB. 

Every month we increase the print 
run, every month we get letters like 
yours. The best bit about subscrib- 
ing is that you get to see the mag 
about a week before everybody 
else. For those still not convinced, 
Amiga Computing hits the streets 
on the first Wednesday of every 
month. 



publication, I am going to have to 
let you off. 

Mark Jones, 
Chigwell, 
Essex. 
The editor wants me to tell you it 
was an April Fools joke. But being 
the cool guy I am, I'm not scared to 
admit that it was an almighfy cock 
up. The advert was pinched from 
our sister magazine. Atari ST User, 
and somebody forgot to change the 
text. 



Evan'll fix it 

RE Grabbed by the Gauls, Amiga 
Arcade, page 17, December 1989. 
Yes, the December 1989 issue of 
Amiga Computing has just hit the 
shelves here in New Zealand. 

In that issue the question of who 
is Panoramix is raised. The answer 
is that the French version of the 
comic book has the druid we all 
know as Getafix pottering around 
under this nom-de-guerre. 

Hang loose and keep those 
Amigas humming. 

Evan Yates, 

Auckland, 

New Zealand, 



Naughty man 

1 HAVE just bought an Amiga 500 
from a shop that offers very little in 
the way of useful advice. I am 
struggling slowly with the work- 
bench and starting to get the hang 
of it. 

What I really need, which the 
man in the shop told me the work- 
bench was, is a word processing 
package. I want to be able to store 
video catalogues and be able to 
keep pages of text under various 
titles. I write a great deal and need 
it to be kept orderly and easily 
accessible. 

The only thing I've seen that 
looks suitable is The Mini Office, 
but this is only available for the 
BBC Micro. 

Please help me by recommend- 
ing something you think is suit- 
able, as I can't use my computer for 
the secondary purchase reason. 
Yes, I have to confess that I bought 
it mainly for games. 

Millah Adams, 
Worthing, 
West Sussex. 
Fancy telling you Workbench was a 
word processor. You should have 
asked for a demonstration. If he 
refused, you should have become 
very suspicious. 

Sounds like what vou need is 



Broken mouse 



FOR some time my mouse port has 
not been functioning correctly and 
this is quite literally driving me 
mad. 

My mouse had been behaving 
erratically for some time. II would 
draw a series of dashes in DPainl, 
for instance, when I required a 
continuous line, as though the left 
mouse button was being clicked on 
and off repeatedly in rapid succes- 
sion. 

I thought it might have some 
fluff on its ball, so I cleaned il oul 
thoroughly. For about half-an-hour 
it worked perfectly, but my joy was 
short lived. The problem started to 
occur again, 

The right mouse button has 
always worked normally, as only 
the left one seems to be afflicted 
with this mystery illness. No matter 
how hard it is clicked, il fails to 
make any sort of response as far as 
opening drawers in Workbench is 
concerned. 

I decided that il was probably 
the mouse itself that was at fault, 
and came to the conclusion that the 
only answer would be to splash out 
on a new one. Rather than wait two 
to three weeks from a mail order 
company I thought I'd buy one 
from a retail outlet. What a sham- 
bles that turned out to be! 

I had lo wait three weeks before 
it was in stock and then paid a 
massive £36. 1 got the new mouse 
home and tested it out for a hit. The 
first 15 minutes or so was fine, but 
after half-an-hour the problem had 
returned. 

So, having shelled out for a 
vastly overpriced mouse, I now 
assume that the fault lies with the 
port. I can't afford £50 for some 
engineer to come and tell me that it 
doesn't work. In the meantime, my 
decrepit Amiga 1000 is in serious 
danger of being thrown through a 
plate glass window in a fit of rage. 
Katharina Spencer, 
Basingstoke, 
Hampshire. 
Nope, sounds like the mouse to 
me. It's a common problem. 
Because you use the left mouse 
button more than the right one, it's 
the first to go. The problem lies 
with the flaky switch mechanism 
Commodore uses. 

The only answer is to buy your- 
self a mouse that uses 
microswitches under the buttons. I 
recommend the Naksha mouse. It 
comes with a mouse house and 
solid mouse pad which I've found 
much better for detailed work in 
DPainl. 



J 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 25 



LETTERS 



The Works! Platinum Edition. It 
contains a word processor, 
database, spreadsheet (with graph- 
ics) and telecommunications pro- 
gram. Check out the mail order 
adverts, I've seen a number of 
companies selling it. 

However, to use your A500 seri- 
ously you're almost certainly going 
to first need more ram and at least 
one external Poppy drive. 



Now with 
added oomph 

I HAVE read every issue of Amiga 
Computing since June 1988 and am 
pleased to see that your cover illus- 
trations have returned to a more 
dignified approach after the previ- 
ous six months of lurid Fiendish 
Deja Ninja Assassin screenshots. 

Being 32 years old I feel a bit 
silly queueing up in my business 
suit to pay for a magazine that 
looks like Spotty Teenager 
Monthly. 

Anyway, on to a more serious 
topic. Your cover shot of the DTP 
stuff raises a few a couple of ques- 
tions: Why does Nic Veitch paint 
his fingernails red and now that 
you are an an Interactive 
Publication rather than A Database 
Publication, will you make an 
effort to reduce your 2,592.000 sec- 
ond response times? 

I look forward to you becoming 
an Online Publication and than a 
User-Friendly, Mouse-Driven 
Publication. 

Ian D Wilson, 

Little Staughton, 

Bedfordshire. 



Ready, aim, fire 

I AM told that there are ways of 
printing hidden pictures and have 
seen a few examples. How is this 
achieved on the Amiga? 

What does the PrtSc key do, and 
do other keys have to be pressed 
too? 

What is the cheapest external 
modem you have seen that sup- 
ports both Prestel and Micronet? 

Does Amiga Computing have its 
own Bulletin Board? 

Mark Kinslow, 
Rochester, 
Kent. 
Hey dude, what's this hidden pic- 
tures stuff? Don't have the first 
idea what you 're on about. 

With the GB keyboard configu- 
ration, the PrtSc key displays an 



asterisk on the screen. The words 
you can see on the fronts of the 
keys are there for PC compatibility 
if you're running an emulator. 

It's not modems that support 
BBS systems, it's the software. 
RubyView is about the best Prestel 
software for the Amiga on offer at 
the moment, although I've heard a 
rumour about a new Australian 
package called GPTerm that sings 
and dances. Keep your eyes open 
for that one. 

No. Amiga Computing does not 
have its own bulletin board, 
although we're active on CIX (ami- 
gacomputing), on MicroLink 
(MAGOOlj and in our own section 
on 01 for Amiga. 



What a mistaka 
to maka! 



I THINK you are trying to persuade 
us that more is less, or is this a 
cunning and devious plan to 
change the office motto by Danie! 
Schostak. Yes I refer to his letter in 
the March issue about installing 
DFO: 

Would it not be a lot easier to 
type INSTALL ?, the Amiga then 



prompting with DRIVE/A:. Then 
all you have to do is remove work- 
bench, insert the disc to be 
installed and type DFO: 
Simple eh! 

Ian Mellor, 

Wallington, 

Surrey 



Operation Bad 
Taste 

I LIVE in Monkseaton, Tyne and 
Wear, where a gunman ran wild 
last year. I knew the man killed. I 
totally agree with John Kennedy in 
his review of Operation 
Thunderbolt in the April issue. I 
now refuse to spend my money on 
games of this type. It is definitely 
not funny any more. 

Iain Hudson, 

Monkseaton, 

Tyne and Wear. 



Printer lead 

I HAVE got an Amstrad DMP2000 
printer which is connected to a 
BBC Micro. I also have an Amiga 
500. Please could you tell me if I 



Double dutch delight with disc 



AFTER doing some reading in the 
April issue I decided to break out 
my text editor and write you folks 
a "letter. No Protext for this one, 
though, I'm hooked on MicroEmacs 
as supplied on the Extras disc, 
which is supported by Blitzfonts 
from your January Cover Disc. 

Your disc is so good it can only 
be capitalised, not so much 
because of Blitzfonts, which I do 
appreciate, but mainly because of 
Sid. Timm Martin [the author) has 
sent me vl.06, which is a great 
improvement on an already great 
prog. Which means you're due for 
some credit since it's your mag that 
confronted me with Sid in the first 
place. 

Apart from what Sid can do, 
which is a lot, the great value is 
that it cost me blood, sweat and 
tears. But then, the rocks on Glory 
Road are rarely mentioned. 1 got it 
working, installed on a stripped 
Workbench disc. A Workbench 
1.3.2 of course, another great thing 
I got from you, All in all, you cost 
me a lot of skull sweat and made 
me improve a great deal. Thanks. 

It should be clear by now that 
your Cover Disc has been a major 
argument to buy your mag. And 



then you dropped it! Still, I saw no 
reason to complain. After all, you 
gave such a reasonable explanation 
for dropping it 

I've been regularly buying your 
mag since the November 1989 
issue, my computing career having 
started on October 17, 1989. 1 never 
missed an issue, although in the 
shop where I bought your April 
issue it turned out to be the only 
one, which says something about 
your popularity in the little coun- 
try by the sea. Believe me, the shop 
where I bought it is seldom under- 
stocked. 

It's only honest to say that I 
sometimes buy English Amiga 
magazine whose names need not 
be mentioned here. One of them 
sports its own bleak excuse for a 
cover disc (certainly not capi- 
talised). The return of The Disc is 
certainly going to mean Mayday for 
certain mag folks, which probably 
explains your timing. (Deep 
thought, that one.) 

So congratulations, as far as I'm 
concerned you're the only one for 
me again. 

And yet nobody's perfect. Your 
Gimmel32 script does have a 
glitch. Ever tried it on a half meg 



can connect the DMP2000 printer 
to my Amiga, and if I can, where 
can I get a lead and what name 
would the printer be under on the 
workbench disc. 

Andrew McBain, 
Elgin, 
Moray. 
You need just a normal parallel 
printer lead, like the ones IBM PCs 
use. Try The Computer Store on 
021-770 0468. I've not got a 
DMP2000 to test this on, but I 
guess the driver to use will be 
EpsonXOld. 



Olivetti driver 

I OWN an Amiga 500 and an 
Olivetti DM 100-S. The trouble is, 
even using the generic printer 
driver I don't seem to get results. 
Can you tell me where to get a 
proper driver, please? 

Edward Christian, 
Dorchester, 
Dorset, 
/ don't know this printer. Try every 
driver you've got. If none works 
contact Commodore on 0628- 
770088 to see if anybody's written 
one yet. 



machine? I did, and kept hitting a 
ram disc full message, until all of a 
sudden, after a warm reset, it 
worked as instructions. To the let- 
ter. 

My keeping at it must be the 
Dutch stubbornness. The dike 
builder's blood, I suppose. The 
sailor's salt that's coursing through 
my veins as well, naturally. 

Whatever, I'm getting impatient 
already. One whole month till I get 
your next Cover Disc..,. 

Jans Poldermans, 
The Netherlands. 
Hmmm. We tested Gimmel32 on 
two half meg machines, 1.2 and 
1.3 KickStart, and it worked every 
time. Yet a number of people have 
written in with the same ram disc 
full problem, who then went away 
and managed to get it to work, as 
you did. Strange. 

Well done for registering Sid, we 
totally agree with you about the 
improvements Timm Martin has 
made. If you want a better and 
more Amiga-like text editor than 
MicroEmacs, try the shareware 
program, QED. Runs like the wind. 
Faster than Protext, even. I'll see if 
I can get Jeff to put it on the Cover 
Disc. 



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AMIGA PROGRAMMERS REQ TTTRFD 

Digj^rapMc TUd fmgmmmSM of Amiga Affyfaftfloins Foir Neairly Five YeanrsS 

We are currently seeking Amiga programmers to work in house in the Midlands 

area. Programmers must have a good working knowledge of "C" and/or 68000 

Assembler. If accepted you would be working with existing Programmers and 

Graphics Designers on a multitude of leading edge projects. These include 

industrial sector Audio/Visual presentation systems and CD ROM based projects. 

Areas of expertise which may prove advantageous in any application are IFF sound 

image and anim experience, CD ROM experience, DOS programming, data 

compression/decompression experience, Multi Media, Hyper Media, Hyper Text, 

user interface design, hardware design, device drivers, C64, IBM PC and 

Archimedes programming . These are not requirements remember primarily we are 

after good general Amiga programmers. 

Our existing development environment is based around A2000 machines all 

networked via Hydra network cards. Amigas are 68020/030 turbo card machines 

with local hard disk and access via the network to two Sony Magneto Optical 

subsystems (600 Meg re writable CD units). Add to this our existing base of in 

house tools, code modules and reference material and you have probably the finest 

development environment in Europe! We also have a full range of support 
technology, for example five digitisers, VHS video deck, U-MATIC video deck, 
sound equipment, CD ROM, 8mm, video deck, genlocks, camcorder, digital still 

camera etc etc. 

We can offer a good package of enumeration to the right candidates and will also 

help with any relocation expenses if required. The position is full time and 

candidates must be prepared to work in house, freelance programmers need not 

apply. Please apply in writing to Mr Lee Gibson at the address below, examples of 

your work will be required, (all disks will be returned), as will a CV of 

programming experience to date. 



DIGIGRAPHIC LTD 

1 The Terrace, High St, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, LEI, 6BA 
Telephone (0455) 558855 Fax (0455) 556067 



28 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 





JOLYON RALPH'S 
assembler series 
provoked immense interest 
among Amiga Computing 
readers. It would seem 
that a great many potential 
coders are interested in 
using the Amiga at low 
level, but simply don't 
know where to start. 

Jolyon helped with the 
first few steps, but here 
in the office we have 
received many letters and 
calls from desperate people 
whose first utterance is to 
the effect that the listings 
didn't work, finishing with 
the immortal words: "I typed 
it in exactly as it was in the 
book". 

I know Jolyon's listings definitely do 
work because 1 have typed them in 
myself. It would seem that a great deal 
of the problems resulted from would- 
be programmers using strange assem- 
blers given away free with certain 
other magazines. 

The main reason for lack of success 
could eventually be traced to failing to 
make use of the chip memory option 
from within most assemblers. 

The Amiga has several flavours of 
random access memory (ram), 
including chip and fast. The bare 
A500, referred to as vanilla by 
jargonists everywhere, comes with 



t»4tttt**»ttitt*tt*«ttittlrttttt1tt* 

* Example nachise code listing to * 

* display five bitplanes. * 

* Please note that the complete * 

* version is on the cover disc. * 
**»***#♦•******#****+****»***#**«»* 



Insert the addresses of the five 
bitplanes into the copper list. 

move.l tecreen,dO 
move.w dO.plll 
swap dO 
move.w dO.pllh 

iKwe.l tscreen*40240,d0 
move.w d0,pl2! 
swap dO 
move.w d0,pl2h 

move.l *screent20480,d0 




Your programming 
problems solved by 
the man in the white 
coat, John Kennedy 



512k of ram, all of the chip variety. 

Chip memory can be directly 
accessed by the custom chips in the 
Amiga, and this is where all graphics 
and sound data must be stored. On a 
bare A500 you have no choice but to 
use chip memory. 



However, once you add a 
memory expansion you 
suddenly have another 
512k of ram available, 
ram that cannot be 
accessed by the custom 
hardware directly. Unless 
you have fitted the 
Extended Chip Set, but 
that's another story. 

This memory can take 
priority when executing 
programs, so after 
assembling and including 
your carefully planned 
code and data, you 
might have accidentally 
placed it in a location 
where the Amiga can't 
see it. If this happens, 
your copper lists might 
remain totally blank, your sprites 
invisible and your sound effects 
inaudible. 

For this reason most assemblers 
have a "chip code only" option which 
is placed at the start of a program. 
Typically, something like: 

section myprogram, code_c 

If you leave this out, or put it in the 
wrong place, the assembler will put 
the code anywhere it pleases, with 
unpredictable results. 



move.w d0,pl3i 


* Put old list back. 




dc.w bpl2ptl 


swap do 






pl21: 


dc.w 


move.w dQ,pl3h 




move.l old.COPUCH 
rts 


pl3h: 


dc.w bpl3pth 
dc.w 


* and so on for other two planes. 


• Here 


is the new copper list. 




dc.w bpl3ptl 


.... 


new: 




pl31: 


dc.w 


* Activate new, improved copper list. 


* Bitplane pointers. 








* one 


for each plane. 


■ and 


so on for o:he 


move.l inew.COPlLCH 










* Where C0P1LCH is the copper register 




dc ,w bpllpth 







* address, effectively $dff080 


pllh: 


dew 












■ End of copper list 


* Wait until mouse button pressed. 




dc.w bpllptl 








pill: 


dc.w 




dc.wSff£f,S 


loop; 










btst f6,$bfe001 




dc.w bpl2pth 


• Screen data. 


tne.s loop 


pl2h: 


dc.w 







screen: incbin "mypic. bitmap' 



Listing I 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 29 



PROGRAMMING 



If your code refuses to work and you 
have a memory expansion fitted, try 
removing it. If it works then, you 
know your code needs to be in chip 
memory. C compilers also use a 
keyword to precede any data which 
must be carefully placed. The moral 
is: If it doesn't work, try chipping it. 

The first problem for those who did 
get JR's articles working, was how to 
get more than one bitplane displayed 
on the screen. A typical letter is this 
one from Jim Whitfield in 
Twickenham, Middlesex. 

"I managed to display a one 
bitplane picture, but after following 
the instructions I failed to display a 
five bitplane picture. When displaying 
the picture do you need to type in all 
the colours or does IFFconverter do it 
for you?" 

This is a common problem, and I'm 
glad to say it has an easy solution. 
Displaying five bitplanes is no more 
involved than displaying one bitplane 
five times. 

Listing I shows how to set up and 
display a five bitplane image (the full 
listing is on the cover disc). 

The main thing is to remember to 
set up space for all five planes, and 
initialise the bitplane pointers for all 
of them. 

The second part of the query also 
has a happy ending. IFFconverter 
takes a standard IFF picture file, such 
as that produced from Deluxe Paint, 



and changes it into a file of bitplanes, 
ready to be directly included inside 
you code. As a bonus it adds the 
colour information for each pen on to 
the end of the file. 

Figure I details the file produced by 
a three bitplane image. For a five 
bitplane image, the colour information 
part of the file grows to 64 bytes long, 
using two bytes for each pen. Colour 
information always makes more sense 
in hexadecimal. 

Once you have your bitplane image 
displayed in glorious technicolour, 
you may be surprised to see various 
sudden flashes of garbage appearing 
on screen. It seems to be in long thin 
strips and flashes on and off so 
quickly that if you blinked you'd miss 
it. To discover the reason for these 
manifestations, some analytical 
thinking is needed. The vital clue is 
the shape - about 16 pixels wide and 
in long strips. What do we know that 
is 16 pixels high and as long as 



* Additional 


listing to dispose 


* of on-screen garbage. 


dew 


SPR0PTO,$3,SPaQPTi,$0 


dew 


SFR1PTH,S3,SPR1PTL,$0 


dew 


SPR2PTH,$3,SPR2ETL,$0 


dew 


EPR3PTH, S3 , SPR3 PTL, SO 


dew 


SPR4FTH, S3 , SPR4PTL, SO 


dew 


SPRSPTH, S3 , SPR5PTL, SO 


dew 


SPSePTri, S3 , SPR6PT1,, SO 


dew 


SPR7PTH,$3,SFR7PTL,$0 



Listing II 



needed? Hardware sprites perhaps? 
And that's the problem solved. To 
prevent the garbage from flashing on- 
screen, make sure you initialise the 
sprite registers. Listing II should be 
inserted in the bitplane display 
program to get rid of the garbage. OK, 
Dave Baker? Happy now? 



BACK in the old days when I was 
using a Vax mainframe, one of 
my favourite programs was called 
Fortune Cookie. This miracle of 
modern technology presented me with 
a sound piece of advice every time I 
logged on, helping me to cope with 
the problems of the day. 

I have yet to come across a similar 
program on the Amiga, so I sat down 
to write one myself. I had an immedi- 
ate choice of languages, including 
Basic and assembler, but I decided on 
C because I hadn't written a program 
in C for a long time. 

C is ideally suited to producing 
such small, CLI-driven programs. 
Cookie compiles to a very small 
program and can be inserted into your 
startup-sequence to make your day. 

The main problem with writing a 
fortune cookie program is to produce a 
random message every time it is 
executed. Using C's built-in random 
number generator on its own is a no- 



^£ 








16 bytes 






^^^ 


^v 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


1^ 


0000 


OFFF 


0F00 


00F0 


OOOF 


0F0F 


0FF0 


0FF0 







COLOUR 



0000 

-k — kr-k — k- 



green W|B 



c 

0( 


0LOUR4 

)0I 

i A i 


F 


T 

ignored 


green 





ignored red 
component 

BLACK 



red 



blue 



BLUE 



Figure I: The make-up of the colour information included at end of IFF convertor file for a three bitplane, eight colour image 



30 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




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inc VAT + Delivery 



3.5" External Drive 




* Suitable for Amiga 500/ 
1000/2000 

* NEC drive mechanism 

* Can be daisy chained 



* Integral power supply 

* Ultra slim metal case 

* Enable/disable switch 

* 12 months warranty 



ONLY £72.95 

inc VAT + Delivery 



STOP PRESS -BUY BOTH ITEMS £139.95 



ES 



Order Hotline (0256) 463507 

Orders under E8 in value carry a small order charge of £2 




AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 31 



PROGRAMMING 



no because its seed - the starting 
number - is the same each time the 
program is executed. 

I tried using the system clock to set 
the seed and get a number that was 
different each time the machine was 
re-started. This didn't seem to work 
either, so I had to settle on the sneaky 
method of using a file on the disc to 
recall the last message used. I'd like to 
hear of a better method. 

You can see this part of the program in 
Listing III; the complete working, ready- 
to-compile version is on the cover disc. 



MOST programmers have 
looked at Amiga Basic, gone 
"Yuck!" and hidden it away on top of 
the wardrobe. For those brave enough 
to struggle through this, shall we say, 
original and exciting language, the 
rewards are few and far between. Take 
this letter as an example, from Alan 
Stewart of Cumbria: 

"I have recently bought my A500 
and was disappointed to find that 
only 25k of programming space is 
available in Basic. Is there any way I 
can improve this?" 

The answer is yes. By using the 
CLEAR command you can reserve 
more space for Basic programs. To 



Ram regained 

IN the tradition of'good Samaritan 
programmers everywhere, allow me 
to introduce Michael C. Bassett of 
Plymouth who has written in with a 
routine to enable A2000 owners 
with GVP hard drives to regain 
more than 180k of ram. This 
memory is normally taken by the 
system, no matter if booting from 
hard drive or floppy. 

Assemble the code below and use 
it when booting to tell the system to 
ignore the hard drive and return 
vour memory. 



* Code to release ram take 

* the by GVP hard drive. 

* Written by that nice 

« chap Michael C. Bassett. 

execbase equ i 
superstate equ -150 
resetvec equ $feQ0d2 

move.l execbase,a6 
jsr superstate (a(i) 
jsr resetvec 



start of with you have about 25000 
bytes to play with. If you issue the 
command: 

CLEAR ,40000 

you will have expanded this to 40000 



Part of a C Fortune Cookie Program fcy Aj 
This part tries to set a number from a file. 
If the file does not exist, it is created. 
Thus the messages are cycled through one by one. 



•I 



if ((fp=fopen['coolde.file','rt'))==HULL| 

{ /* File does not exist, so create it */ 

fp=£oper.( "cookie, file", 'wt' ) ,- 

nwber=0; 

fprintf(fp,"Sd\number); 

fclose(fp) ; 
1 

else 
{ 

/* File does exist, so get muter frees it */ 

f scanf ( fp, **d* , Snumber ) ; 

number**; 

if (number==32| nmrber=0r /* Reached maximum */ 

rewindifp) ; 

fprintflfp," id", number); /* Write new number */ 

fclose(fp) ; 



) 

/• Write out the message •/ 

print fCVnTbought for the day:\r."l; 

switch (number) { 

case 0:printf ("First message*) ;break; 

case l:printf( "Second message" 1, 'break; 



case 3 1 :print£ ( "Last Message . " ) ;break; 
default:; 



Listing III 



bytes, assuming, of course, that this 
amount of ram can be spared by the 
system. 

Other ways to get around the 
memory limitations are to use small 
programs and chain them together 
from one main menu program, like the 
examples in Listing IVa and IVb. 



' MenuSection program 



print 

PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
PRINT 
HUNT 



"Example program' 

'Please choose option: 

"1. Cption 1" 
"2. Option 2" 
"3. Cption 3" 



lp: 

TNPUrn 

IF D=l THEN CHUN 'Sect foil' 
IF n=2 THEN CHUN - $ection2" 
IF n=3 THEN CHUN "Section}" 
GOTO lp: 

ETC 



Listing 
IVa 



' Sectionl program 


PRINT 


"This is option 1" 


CHUN 


"MenuSection" 


END 





Listing 
IVb 



To load and auto-run a Basic 
program larger than 25,000 bytes but 
shorter, for example, than 70,000 
bytes, you will need to write a short 
loader program, like so: 

CLEAR , 70000 :CHADI "KnnFrogram" 

The relevant sections for CHAIN 
and CLEAR are on pages 8-28 and 8-33 
of the Amiga Basic manual. That's it 
from me. Have a good month. 



/ AM always on the lookout for 
clever solutions or techniques. 
Your Basic program to calculate 
pi to 30 decimal places might be 
just what someone is looking for. 
Or have you found a neat way in 
assembler or C to create 
software sprites with the blitter? 
Want to be famous? Send it in. 

The code clinic 
Amiga Computing 
Europa House 
Adlington Park 
Macclesfield 
SK104NP 

MicroLink: Mag048 
CIX: amigacomputing 



' 



Amiga Desktop Video Guide 

The Amiga Desktop Video Guide is the most complete and 

useful guide to desktop video on the Amiga. 

Amiga Desktop Video Guide covers all the basics - denning 

video terms, selecting genlocks, digitizers, scanners, VCRs, 

camera and connecting them to the Amiga. 

Just a few of the topics you'll find described in his excellent book: 



• The Basics ol Video 


• Music and Videos 


• Genlocks 


• Home Video 


• DlglUzsffi and Scanners 


• Advanced Techniques 


• Frame Grabbers/Frame 


• Using the Amiga to add or 


Buffers 


Incorporate Special Effects to a 


• How la connect VCRs, and 


video 


Cameras to the Amiga 


• Tps on Paint, Ray Tracing and 


• Animation 


3-D Rendering in Commercial 


• Video Titling 


Applications 



ISBN 1-55755-057-3 



PRICE £16.95 



BOOKS FOR THE AMIGA 

Amiga lor Beginners (Abacus) £12.95 

Amiga BASIC Inside 4 Out (Abacus) £18^95 

Amiga Machine Language (Abacus) £14.95 

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Amiga System Programmers Guide (Abacus] £29.95 

Advanced System Programmers Guide (Abacus) £29,95 

AmigaDOS tnslde 5 Out (Abacus) £16.95 

Amiga 3D Graphics in BASIC (Abacus) !""£1s]96 

Am^a C (or Beginners (Abacus) .£16.95 

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Amiga Graphics Inside & Out (Abacus) .„„ £29,95 

Amiga DiskDnVes Inside 4 Out (Abacus) £24.95 

Amiga More Tricks 4 Tips (Abacus) £14,95 

AmigaDOS Quick Ref. Guide (Abacus) £R95 

Amiga Desktop Video (Abacus) „ £16.95 

Amiga Hardware Reference Guide (Add ison-Wes ley) C21.95 

Kemal ROM Manual: Libs 4 DivB (Addison-Weefey) £29.95 

Kernal ROM Manual: Includes & AutcOocs (Addison-Wesley) £28.95 

1001 Things To Do With Amiga (Tabs) -_.E12.flS 

Am'ga Assembly Language Prog. (Tabs) _ _ £12.95 

Advanced Amiga BASIC (Computet) ...,.., , u , ,.,ffl)_9ff 

Amiga Applications (Computal) £14 95 

Amiga DOS Ref. Guide 3rd Ed. (Computel) .....»...._™_.£18_>fi 

Amiga Machine Language Guide (Computel) , £18.95 

Amiga Programmers Guide (Computel) £15.95 

Beginners Guide 10 the amlga (Computel) ,..,.£14.95 

1st Book of Amiga (Computel) ._......_Ze1*.9B 

2nd Book of Amiga (Computel) , .,1 £14 95 

Elementary Amiga BASIC (Computel) ~.._,_™..1.™L_£1&85 

Inside Amiga Graphics (Computel) £14.95 

Kids 4 The Amiga (Computel) , ,.„ .., £13,95 

Mapping the Amiga (Computel) „... , £19 95 

Amiga Desktop Video (Computel) ....-.._._."„.._ !"1_16JJS 

Inside the Amiga with C (Sams) _ _ !."I"*"c20.95 

Amiga Programmers Handbook Vol 1 (Sybex) _ .™"-"!-™!!ZZ_J-B_tS 

Amiga Programmers Handbook Vol 2 (Sybex) _ ~,_JES8UB5 

Programmers Guide 1o the Amiga (Sybex) _ C22 95 

Amiga DOS Manual (Bantam) IZZZ.Z.Z..Zs22.9S 

Amiga Guide Graphics, Sound, Tet. (Bantam) _ ,"^£16^95 

Amiga DOS; A Dabhand Guide (Dabs) !.!"""!'" £14 95 

Amiga Microsoft BASIC Prog. Guide (Scott-For) ZZ'Z'ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ^B95 

Becoming an Amiga Artist (Scott-For) „_™-_..JZZ™™.X1&86 

Klckstart Guide (Ariadne) ■_.-___.._] ZZl3 95 

Amiga Programmers Guide (Webber) .'1"""""!"ZZZZ£ 16^95 

Companion disks for books " Z-.E9.9S 

Special Offers on Amiga Software 

GFA BASIC 3,0 + Compiler , E5 g 95 

Kindwords * Maxlplan ♦ Superbase 2 ZZZ"ZZ!c99 95 

Graphics Starter Kit (Aegis Draw/ Animator/Clip Art/ Adventure game) £39 95 

Manchester United Game " £1795 

S 50 !; basic zz:zzz:zzz:zzz:£59:95 

Hisoft Devpac _ _ £44 g5 

^™ c w-»-- ; - - zzzzzzzzem.*, 

Panmead Sales Ledger _ E:M g5 

Panmead Purchase Ledger _ .„...,„.... £34 95 

Panmead Invent07 Control.............. „i. £34 95 

Panmead General Ledger „ " £34 95 

All 4 of above -ZZ.ZZi £99 95 

Certificate Maker (Baudville) ZZZ!." £19 95 

Video Vegas (Slots. Blackjack, Draw Poker. iienaZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. £14 95 

Amiga 500 dust cover " £4 95 

Free delivery In the UK. Software post free overseas. Book, add 10% for Europe or 
surface mall worldwide, 30% for airmail outside Europe. 

AcceaarVIaa orders accepted. Tel 0706-524304 <9am-10pm) (cuatomera only - no 
sales repa pleaael ). Dealer enquiries welcome. 

Send SAE for detailed catalogue, Stating computer (3) owned. 

Thia ia not a shop. Please telephone before visiting. 



F.liT_WbM_lrl 



(DEPT D2), 

18 Norwich Avenue, 

Rochdale, 

Lancashire. OL11 5JZ 



ANIMATIX FOR AMIGA 

36 The Brampton Centre 
Wath-upon-Dearne S63 6BB 

Tel: (0709) 760151 
All prices include VAT& Delivery 



HARDWARE 



A500 Batman Pack,.... 

A500 Batpak + 10Star& 

Photon Paint 

A500 Batpak + 1084S 

A2000 + 10Star, 



.£365 



■ ■■■■■■•i ■ .-..■. ■ 



• ■•■■■■■ *w%J CbJ*t 

........£610 



DISK DRIVES 



A1 01 Disk Onve £95 39 

Cumana CAX354 3 5" £95 39 

Cumana CAX1000S 5 2S*„£126 50 



MIDI §§ GRAPHICS 



Easyl A4 Tablet £285.35 

AM3000 Midi I/Face £24.95 

Midimaster £34 99 



MONITORS 



Commodore 1084S.. 
Commodore 1900M 

Mono 12' 

Philips CM8833 



.£282.33 

£99 99 
f275 00 



PRINTERS 



Commodore MPS123Q £212.00 

Commodore MPS1250 . £144,25 

Citizen 1200 £230.00 

Epson LX850 £297.00 

Micro P MP165++,,,... £230.00 

NECP2200 £408,25 

Canon 1080A Inkjet £540 50 



JOYSTICKS & j 

CONTROLLERS 

Kempston Mouse . ,.£29.95 

Marconi Trackball £59.95 

Competition Pro £14.95 

Competition Pro + £15.95 

Navigator £14.95 

Quickjoy III £12.95 

SlikStik £6.95 

Speedkmg £12.95 



DEDICATED BOOKS 



DIGITISERS& 
SAMPLERS 



Futuresound £84.20 

Pro Sound Gold £73 59 

DigiviewGold £138 45 

Superpic £518,64 

Rendale 8802 Genlock £276.97 



CABLES & 
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4-Way Adaptor £5.95 

Midi Cable £2.95 

Prinler Cable £11.50 

Mouse Mat £4.95 

A550 Power Supply £62.50 



1 001 Things To Do Wilh Your Amiga£t 2.60 

Advanced Amiga Basic £16.95 

Amiga 3D Graphics Prog in Basic .118.45 

Amiga Assembly Language Piog £10.80 

Amiga Basic Insideand Out £18.95 

Amiga C (or Advanced Prog £32.95 

Amiga C for Beginners £18.45 

Amiga Disk Drives Inside S Out £27.95 

Amiga DOS Inside & Out £18.45 

Amga DOS Manual (The) 12 £22.95 

Amiga DOS Reference Guide £14.95 

Amiga For Beginners £12.95 

Amiga Hardware Reference Manual. .£21.95 

Amiga Machine Language £14.95 

Amiga Machine Lang. Prog. Guide .,.£19.95 

Amiga Programmers Handbook £24,95 

Amiga Prog Handbook Vol. 2 £23.95 

Amiga System Programmers Guide £32.95 
Amiga ROM Kernal Ref. Man. Includes 

AndAutodocs £29,95 

Amiga ROM Kernel Ref. Man. Libraries 

And Devices £29.95 

Amiga Tncks And Tips £1195 

Amiga More Tips And Tricks £1845 

Amiga Users Guide E18.95 

Computers 1st Book 01 Amiga £16,95 

Compute! s 2nd Book Of Amiga „ £16.95 

Computels Amiga Applications £16.95 

Compute! s Amiga Prog. Guide £16.95 

Computels Begin. Guide To Amiga ..£1 6.95 

Elementary Amiga Basic £14,95 

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Using Deluxe Paint II £16.95 



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AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 33 



iasQlte 




COME TO THE 
PROFESSIONALS!!!! 



NOW TAKEN 



2 William Clowes Street 

Burslem 

Stoke on Trent 

ST6 3AP 

Tel: 0782 575043 



AMIGA EDUCATIONAL 



Postman Pat 7.99 

Fun School 2 6-8 13.50 

Fund School 2 Under 6 13.50 

Fun School 2 Over 8 13.50 



AMIGA ADVENTURES 



Bards Tale 7.99 

Bards Tale 2 16.99 

Battlelech 9.99 

Chronoquest 14.99 

Chronoquest 2 19.99 

Corruption 7.99 

Faery Tale Adventure 1 1 .99 

Fish 7.99 

Galdregons Domain 7.99 

Gold Rush 9.99 

Hollywood Hijinx 7.99 

Indy Jones the Adventure 16.99 

Legend 6.99 

Lords of the Rising Sun 12.99 

Lost Dutchmen Mine 16.95 

Leisure Suit Larry 2 21.95 

Manhunter 9.99 

Murder in Venice 7.99 

President is Missing 9.99 

Police Quest 1 10.99 

Rocket Ranger 9.99 

Romantic Encounters 6.99 

Space Quest 1 9.99 

Space Quest 3 19.99 

Tanglewood 4.99 

Ultima 4 19.99 

Warlocks Quest 4.99 

Willow 999 

Hound of Shadow 17.99 

Zork Zero 9.99 



AMIGA STRATEGY/SIM 



688 Attack Sub 17.99 

Austerlitz 16.99 

Armegeddon Man 2.99 

BattJehawks 1942 17.99 

Bomber 19.99 

Conflict Europe 11.99 

Conquer 19.99 

Destroyer 8.95 

Fire Zone 7.95 

Flight Path 737 4.99 

Micro Scorrer 9.99 

MidWinter 19.99 

North and South 17.99 

Honda RVF 15.99 

Paris Dakar Rally 15.99 

Silent Service 17.99 

Stunt Car Racer 15.95 

Sorcerer Lord 7.95 

Volley Bali Sim 7.99 

Gunship 15.99 



'kn 



Amiga Computing 2 



AMIGA CLEARANCE 



Advanced Ski Sim 4.99 

Altered Beast 7.99 

Archepeligos 7.99 

Alien Legion 6.99 

Alien Syndrome 7.99 

Arkanoid 2 7.99 

Baal 6.99 

Backlash 5.99 

Buggy Boy 7.99 

Butcher Hill 5.99 

Bomb Jack 7.99 

Blasteroids 7.99 

Bloodmoney 9.99 

BMXSim 4.99 

Craps Academy 4.99 

Custodian 5.99 

Captain Blood 4.99 

Cogan's Run 4.99 

Cybernoid 5.99 

Daily Double Horse 9.99 

Death Con 5 8.99 

Deflector 5.99 

Dominator 6.99 

Dragon Spirit 9.99 

Dynamite Dux 9.99 

Ebon Star 2.99 

Eagles Nest 4.99 

Empire Strikes Back 4.99 

Flying Shark 6.99 

Foundations Waste 4.99 

Football Manager 2 6.99 

Fighting Soccer 9.99 

Fernandez Must Die 5.99 

Flintstones 5.99 

Grid Start 3.99 

Real Ghostbusters 7.99 

Gold Runner 1 4.99 

Gold Runner 2 5.99 

Galaxy Force 7.99 

Hyperdome 4.99 

Hollywood Poker 4.99 

Hollywood Poker Pro 7.99 

I.S.S 6.99 

Italia 1990 4.99 

F18 Interceptor 8.99 

Ikari Warriors 7.99 

Irridon 2.99 

Jug 5.99 

Joe Blade 4.99 

Joe Blade 2 4.99 

Leathernecks 6.99 

Led Storm 7.99 

Little Computer People 4.99 

Menace 6.99 

Manax 3.99 

Millenium 2.2 9.99 

Motorbike Madness 4.99 



AMIGA CLEARANCE 



New Zealand Story 

Nebulas 

Netherworld 

Outrun 

Prisoner of War 

Part and 

Photon Paint _ 

Phobia 

Phantom Fighter 

Phantaslm 

Pioneer Plague 

Platoon 

Power Orttl 

Road Blasters 

Rampage 

Return of the Jedl 

Robbery 

Rock Star ate my Hampster.. 

Running Man 

Saint and Greavsle 

SAS Combat 

Side Winder 2 

Sky Blaster , 

Solitaire Royale 

Soldier o1 Light 

Super Wonder Boy 

StarGoosa 

Terry's Big Adventure 

Time Scanner 

Tracers 

Thunderblfds 

Toobin 

Turbo Cup 

Tenorpods 

T.V. Sports Footbal 

victory Road 

Vindicators 

Wicked 

World Tour Golf 

World Class leaderboard .... 



.19.' 



8.99 
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AMIGA TOP TITLES 



Bloodwych 7 £95 

Star Flight 16.95 

Nlnja Warriors 13.95 

XOut 13.95 

Sim City 19.95 

Future Wars 1 7.95 

Prince 1 7.95 

Xenon 2 15.95 

Aquanought 15,95 

Battle Squadron 15.95 

Black Tiger 15.99 

Chase H.0 16.95 

Cabal 16.95 

Colorado 19.99 

Continental Circus 15.95 

Drakkhan 19.95 

Dragon Nln|a 16.95 

Escape Single Castle 32.95 

F1 6 Combat Pilot 1 5.95 

F29 Ratallator 16.99 

Falcon 15.95 

Full Metal Planet 16.99 

Ghouls and Ghosts 15.95 

Ghosttusters 2 1 3.95 

Hamemst 16.99 



AMIGA TOP TITLES 



Hot Rod 14.99 

Kick Oft 12.95 

Kick Off Extra Time 7.99 

Kid Gloves 1 6,99 

Nln|a Spirit 16.99 

Lombard Rally 14.95 

Lancaster 13.95 

Laser Squad 14,95 

Infestation 15.99 

Interphase 15.95 

Manchester United 15.99 

Player Manager 13.99 

Pipe Mania 15.99 

Populas 16.95 

Rainbow Island 16.99 

Risk 13.99 

Snoopy 12.95 

Switchblade 14.95 

Space Ace 32.95 

Stryx 15.95 

Star Blaze 5.99 

Supe rears 13.99 

Turbo 1 2.95 

War Head 1 6.99 

Wild Streets 14.95 



Drum Studio 4.99 

virus Killer 6.99 

Music X 159.95 

Ten x 3.5" DD/DD Disks 6.99 

A501 Expansion 79.95 

Dragons Lalr(IMeg) 29.95 



JOYSTICKS 



Cheetah 125+ 7.95 

Qulckjoy 2 Turbo 11.99 

OulckioyS 17.95 

Quickjoy Jnr 6.99 

Navigator 9.99 



EXTERNAL DRIVE 

Features On/Off Switch, 

latest design 

SPECIAL PRICE £74.95 

(Including insured delivery) 



SPECIAL 

Take the Ami< 
Upgradejn 



delivery) 




CASTLE 
SOFTWARE 

The company that offers 
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at excellent value tor money! 



ttem{s) ordered 



Cost 



"> 



Name 



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Tel No 

V 

34 AMIGA COMPUTING Jane 1990 



Total 



J 



GRAPHICS 





ERIC PICKERING made his 
debut on this earth at the same 
time as the outbreak of World War 
II, which makes him one of our 
older readers. Living in the heart of 
the Welsh hills, with the river 
Clwyd running through his back 
garden, Eric is a residential social 
worker responsible for the running 
of a home for the elderly, which 
means he regularly has to spend up 
to four days away from home. 

After a stretch of duty Eric relaxes 
by getting out his Amiga and 
producing the stunning portraits 
you can see on this page. He used 
the original DPaint to draw these 16 
colour, hi-res pictures, but has now 
upgraded to DPaint HI. 



COMPANIES or 
individuals wishing to 
commission any of our 
Portfolio artists should in 
the first instance contact 
the Amiga Computing 
editorial offices. 
Tel: 0625 878888 
Fax: 0625 879966 



Contributions, on disc 
please, to; Portfolio, 
Amiga Computing, 
Europa House, 
Adlington Park, 
Macclesfield SK10 4NP 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 35 



W * Amiga Arcade 



Getting the drift 



IMPRESSIONS is getting hot under 
the collar about Rorke's Drift. 
Those of you who remember the 
film Zulu will no doubt recall that 
11 Victoria Crosses were won in 
that exchange, most of them 
posthumously. 

The battle of Rorke's Drift was 
probably the biggest foregone con- 
clusion in British history. So how 
is Impressions going to turn it into 
a playable strategy game? Well, we 
reckon they might fiddle the num- 
bers a bit. 

The emphasis will be on acces- 
sibility. Although the strategy will 
be serious, the idea is that you 
don't have to be a strategy gamer to 
play it. Command will go right 
down to individual level, and each 
man will have his own strengths 
and weaknesses. Eighty animation 
frames for each soldier will ensure 
the graphics are up to scratch. 

Why Impressions has taken a 
break from football games to 
release this battle sim is anyone's 
guess, but as you can see from the 
photo, the staff is taking it seri- 
ously. Or are they taking the pith? 




Out on a f limb 




DON'T you just hate those loath- 
somely sweet, lovable little heroes 
in those perversely nice games? 
You don't? What are you, some 
kind of sicko? 

Well then, you'll love Flimbo's 
Quest, the soon to be released 
arcade adventure-cum-platform 
game for the mentally question- 
able. 

Flimbo. the hero, must make his 



way across seven levels of terrify- 
ingly aesthetic yuck and rescue 
his girlfriend from the archetypal 
mad prof. 

System 3's Adrian Cale 
described the game to us as "seri- 
ously cute". 

Sounds hateful doesn't it? 
Amiga versions will be gently 
nudging themselves on to the 
shelves in mid-May. 



Hi mm el in mein boots! 



DIGITAL Magic Software is a rel- 
atively new software house, but it 
has already made waves with 
several top quality products, 
including Trained Assassin and 
the excellent Drivin' Force. 

Next up for release is Escape 
From Colditz, based on the 



famous Gibson board game and 
produced with the co-operation of 
Major Pat Reid, who also helped 
with the original. 

More than 600 internal loca- 
tions are represented, recreating 
the famous castle to a high degree 
of accuracv. Some features will be 



Colditz -pure 

escapism 

from CMS 




AH the latest news on 
the games software scene 



All hype? 



CRL has been playing around with 
its new hypermedia production sys- 
tem called Dune. This enables even 
inexperienced programmers to 
knock together an interactive system 
in less time than it takes Jeff to make 
the tea. 

The first piece of software off the 
production line was Herewith the 
Clues, an adventure based on the 
book by Dennis Wheatley. 

It's certainly the best system of its 
kind we've seen so far. Stay tuned to 
Amiga Computing for more news. 



ELECTROCOIN is better known for 
its expertise in the arcade, not in 
the home, It has been in the leisure 
business for more than 14 vears, 
manufacturing boards and cabinets 
and distribution of imported prod- 
ucts. 

Now' it is set to enter the home 
market. With all that experience 
behind the company, its first 
release, Time Soldier, is naturally 
enough an arcade conversion, but 
original products are not far 
behind. 

Time Soldier is out now, price 
£24.99, 




completely new, like the ability 
to dig tunnels. (Danny? Are you 
there Danny?) 

Escape From Colditz will be 
caught in the retailers search- 
light real soon, so any Tom, Dick 
or Harry can buy it. 







REVIEWED 




THIS MONTH 


94% Might and Magic II 

90% Infestation 

88% Gin/Cribbage King 

85% Dragon's Breath 

82% 688 Attack Sub 

82% Nuclear War 

81% Knights of Crystallion 

79% Fred 

78% Kid Gloves 

78% Pinball Magic 

77% Crackdown 

72% First Contact 

70% Colony 

67% Space Rogue 

47% Paris-Dakar 



Softville 
winners 



HERE at last are the winners to the 
wonderful Softville competition. 
We had so many entries that the 
magic bin liner split! Next compe- 
tition you'll have to send your 
own. Anyway, the voluptuous 
Tym Lecky picked the following 
runners-up out of Green's monitor 
box: 

Adam Picket from Sudbury, 
Martin Fryatt of York, Richard 
Ballszewski from BecUordshire, 
C.Ross from Manchester, 
S.Loveridge of Surrey, David 
Piper of Newbury, Theresa 
Bradshaw of Kansas City USA, 
Neil Winter of Chelmsford, 
M.Willerton of South Humberside, 
C.Bailey from Bucks, Robert 
Porter from Blackpool, G.Grimes 
of Jarrow, M. Holland from Mingty, 
Marcin Trzaskowski from Poland. 
A.Ruddle of Seaford and Darren 
Williams from Birmingham. 

Each of the above will receive 
five public domain discs. 

Second prize of 50 PD discs 
goes to SSgt D.J. McKay of the 
Royal Engineers, and the fortu- 
itous winner was Andrew 
Hutchinson from Hexham, who 
wins 200 PD discs. 

You lucky, lucky people. 



nr 







HI-TECH Software has signed a 
licence deal with Hanna-Barbera, 
the famous cartoon studios. 

Two titles are scheduled for 
almost immediate release, Yogi's 
Great Escape and Hong Kong 
Phooey - No.l Super Guy. But 
the big news is that they will 
both be retailing for the pseudo- 
budget price of £5.99 



fit" 




AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 37 



MIGHT AND MAGIC II 



Only the dead go free 






DUNGEONS and dragons have 
a lot to answer for. Not only 
did they spawn the creation of the 
first rule-based role-playing game, 
but countless lost hours spent try- 
ing to promote a sorcerer to eighth 
level or arguing over which charac- 
ter was at the front when the six 
inch spikes fell from the ceiling. 

The graduation on to computer 
software isn't necessarily an advan- 
tage. There was something about 
sitting cross-legged in someone's 
bedroom, listening to some Floyd 
and rolling the 20-sided dice on a 
copy of the player's guide that just 



can't be re-created on a computer. 

OK, so the computer now con- 
trols the rules and whatnot, so 
there can be no disputes. But some- 
times the disputes were valid. 
Sometimes they were in the best 
interests of keeping the game enjoy- 
able and playable. 

Probably the most famous of 
these computer attempts is 
Dungeon Master, now going into a 
second incarnation. The problem 
with DM is that the format is too 
rigid. The combat itself is random, 
based on formulae, but the intellec- 
tual involvement is static. You 



must explore the dungeon and 
there is only one way to do this. 

I'll not deny that this approach 
is a good and entertaining one, but 
it is missing the point. It makes 
role-playing like a board game. 
And that is precisely what it's not 
about. Role-playing is about free- 
dom - escapism in one of its purest 
forms. 

Some games have gone the other 
way, with totally random events. 
Again, these have their advantages, 
but they can be just as terrible. If 
the game is so random what is the 
point of exploring? What happens 



20 miles away is just as likely to 
happen here. 

This is where Might and Magic 
II starts scoring points. It is obvi- 
ously heavily based on the Gygax 
series of games. Character genera- 
tion is almost identical, as are 
some of the spells and weapons. 

Might II makes its stand by start- 
ing off as a random hack and slash 
and then turning into more of an 
adventure. A random slaying may 
eventually lead to a quest. For 
example, in the first city a wizard 
will ask you to fetch back a goblet 
stolen from him by the goblins 




ft-flttack B-Bribe H-Hide B-Run 



Dreary Mandagual "'•_ 

shadou . ft chi 1 1 crawls up your • 
a-s a blood-curdling screan warns 
"Enter ar± your own i 



just one of the tough customers you' 11 meet on your travels 



> Conan The /H3 
._> Grunt /H3 

5 > Cassandra /G 



2> Gr 
H > Ukk 
6 > Luc 



Don 't go digging for gold in the street - rob a few houses 




Vear= 906Face= U 



Options Day= 26 



teMbe-r^ you Must find My goblet 



"ReMeMbe-r . 



38 AMIGA COMPUTING lunel 1990 



Uho Mill Try < 1 





1 l > 

1 ^? 


Green 
Grunt 
C-a-s-s-an* 


drm /ll 
; 'ESC ' to 


2 > 
H > 
6 > 

go 


J 
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GAMES 



which live under the city. 

If you accomplish this task he 
will put you on to his sister, who 
also wants a job done. In this way 
quests can follow on from each 
other. Yott may find items from 
one quest while attempting to com- 
plete an entirely different task. 
There is a great sense of taking part 
in something real. 

Unfortunately, the game is 
totally keyboard driven. This is 
actually a bit more sensible than 
using the mouse for moving 
around, but 1 think the spells at 
least would have benefited from a 



Jiz-ai-ci Eye 


u 






1- 



.ight <B> 

c 0% 

Ce-5. 0% 




l-Jizaircl Eye 



"ch 



Has 



Lockbi 



Dpen I ± 
Find Trap 
Setect Magic 

Leaue i ± 



pull-down menu. It's very difficult 
to preserve the atmosphere of per- 
forming some occult ceremony 
while cross-referencing a table of 
numbers to the instruction book, 
no matter how much incense you 
burn. 

Whenever the characters 
encounter anything, an animated 
graphic will appear. These are not 
only a nice decoration but can give 
you an idea of what you are facing. 

If you can't guess whether a 
Brain-eater is undead or not, seeing 
a picture of one might help you 
decide. My favourites are the 
Jugglers, which actually juggle 
properly, and the Hungry Plants. 
Beware of the flowers,.., 

Most adventuring will take place 
within the confines of, or under- 
neath, one of the five cities of Cron. 
However, if you're feeling lucky, or 
if the quest you are on demands it, 
you may find yourself outside the 
protective walls of a city and 
exposed to constant danger. 

A knowledge of woodcraft, map- 
ping, mountaineering and other 
skills relevant to the terrain can be 
obtained if you know where to look. 

In terms of longevity I would say 
there are well over 100 playing 
hours worth in Might II. The major 
quest, the battle to save Cron, is a far 
off and distant thing, though impor- 
tant. Like the ultimate question of 
life, the universe and everything. 

It's not terribly Amiga-like, 
though it will run from AmigaDos 
and can be installed on a hard 
drive. The usual intuition-type 
touches are missing, and are 
missed greatly, at least at first. 
Soon compulsion takes over, 

Might And Magic II captures the 
essence of role-playing that the oth- 
ers have left behind for the rule 
books. They haven't got that M&M 
feeling. 

Lucinda Orr 



Might and Magic II 

£?24.95 

US Gold 




i •\tr .■ 7 K 

Dx4 U-C^&. 











m 




> +r • «■ » cats »"^» *w 

p/v - v- *■•*-* 

hi in ain i 



rfy 



3 i nda 



/10 

/IB 




Overall - 94% 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 39 



r\Ti i /"i r\TLTir\ t%t%t} Arm- 



U AYAjI 11 ±x 



Puff 




WHO wants to live for ever? 
Well, OK then, apart from 
Wogan, Far away in the land of 
Anrea, where presumably Queen 
has yet to play live, there are three 
people to whom the idea appeals 
not a slight bit, 

In fact these people - though I 
use the term loosely - are quite 
prepared to subject the surround- 
ing countryside to terrible war 
and devastation just to gain access 
to the talisman which will admit 
them to the Great Throne Room. 

The cunning plans they have 
drawn up are all based around the 
latest in hi-tech aeronautics, the 
dragon. Each will start with one 
bog-standard flying reptile. By the 
use of its advanced weaponry they 
will be able to occupy, control and 
frighten to death local villages. 

Taxes can be collected from vil- 
lages in your character's control, 
the major source of income for a 
tyrant. Further supplements may 
come as presents donated by vil- 
lages at war with ones just lev- 
elled by your flying beastie, 

Each character has a backup 
supply of 20 unhatched eggs. 



You'd better bung one of these in 
the oven sharpish - you'll need it 
pretty soon. The dragon incubator 
can he set at one of eight levels of 
power. The time it takes for your 
little darling to come out of his 
shell is determined by how high 
you set the incubator, but so are 
the fuel bills, 

This is really a management 
exercise. A careful eye must be 
kept on your cash supply, because 
if it runs out you won't be able to 
afford the terrible fuel bills which 
result from using the dragon incu- 
bators. Of course, you have to use 
the incubators because without 
them you can't hatch dragons, and 
without dragons it is impossible to 
win the game. 

The main aim is to find the tal- 
ismans. Only when you have all 
three guarded by your dragons 
can you move them and get into 
the great castle on Dwarf 
Mountain. So you need at least 
three dragons to win the game. 

It is possible to play without 
using magic, but I doubt if you 
would be able to win. Your drag- 
ons wouldn't last long for a start - 




40 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



GAMES 




a couple of decent bashes and they 
would be featuring at the top of 
the menu in some peasant village 
for a long time to come. 

The magic in the game is a little 
reminiscent of A level chemistry. 
There are lots of strange bits of 
glass apparatus, a Bunsen burner 
and a rack of very dangerous 
looking substances in dodgey 
looking containers. 

Consulting various complicated 
charts will tell you which sub- 
stance to use and how to prepare 
it far a given effect. But be careful, 
make sure you check for possible 
side effects. It is all very well giv- 
ing your dragon virtually infinite 
strength, but if the potion reduces 
his speed to that of a Cub90 you 
haven't done him any favours. 

On the odd occasion you may 
find your potion is so good that it 
blows up. The graphics in this sec- 
tion are very good. It is quite easy 
to judge how well your spell is 
going by watching the yuck that 
drips into the beaker. 

Spells can be used on villages 
for either friendly or hostile pur- 
poses. You might want to reduce 



the populace's combat ability, for 
example, or perhaps you would 
like to boost the population. All 
sorts of effects are possible if you 
research enough. 

Excellent graphics and sound 
throughout make every stage of 
Dragon's Breath a pleasure. A 
wonderful strategy game, full of 
deep interaction between villages, 
dragons and players like a latter- 
day Balance of Power, 

But there is more to it than that, 
as you'll find out when you see a 
dragon hatch and take its first 
breath. 

Lucinda Orr 



A detail map showing an unsuspecting village.. 



Dragon's Breath 

£24.95 

Palace 



urn 



Sound 

Gameplay 
Value 



Overall - 85% 





Too much chilli powder 1 think 




i I 






I 



|rarr:3K?^3B?^ 




4k Bk 

Hi 



GAMES 




FIRST CONTACT 

We come in peace - shoot to kill 



ALTHOUGH the outlying areas 
of the galaxy had been 
colonised, travel between the cen- 
tral regions and the suburbs was a 
lengthy process, sometimes taking 
up to 50 light years. 

Thankfully the introduction of a 
new FTL (faster than light) commu- 
nication system had largely cut the 
time it took the Post Office to send 
a first class letter from Fulchester, 
Earth to Uranus. It could now be 
done in just under an hour instead 
of two months. However, science 
still hasn't devised a way of mak- 
ing sure your mail doesn't get lost. 

Still, everything was running 
smoothly. The government was just 
about to sell off a planet, which 
didn't belong to them, for major 
redevelopment, and the Channel 
Tunnel was nearing completion. 

While everybody was wondering 
whether now would be a good time 
to sell off their water shares, few 
noticed the huge amount of ships 
that had appeared on the horizon 
of the galaxy. 

Rather good timing on their part, 
as the Americans had just finished 
scrapping their weapons, Many 
were now in museums, others 
scrapped, the rest bought by rich 
Arabs for their kids' birthdays. 

These spacecraft quickly spread 
themselves about the galaxy, 
watching, guarding every move- 
ment. No ship was allowed to-enter 
or exit any planet, all attempts 
were met with death. Never was 
there any communique from the 
aliens. All efforts at establishing 
communications went without 
reply. A bit like BT. 

While keeping watch, an alien 
vessel stumbled upon one of the 
remote relay stations of the FTL 
comms link. The aliens' moves 
suggested that they would board 
the station in the near future. 
Something had to be done before 
communications around the galaxy 
were cut off for good. 

Assuming control of an undam- 
aged maintenance droid upon the 
station, you must guide it, obliter- 
ating any alien life form that hap- 
pens your way. 

Control of the droid is via a 
remote link, while a birds-eye view 
of the station is provided by a 
number of sensors within its corri- 
dors. 

The droid is made up of three 
independent sections, each having 



different capabilities. The three 
parts can be divided to provide 
three independent droids. Science 
programmers have made it possible 
for you to re-program each of the 
droids. 

The station has four levels, each 
is equipped with machinery vital 
to the radio station's function. Deck 
A has many storage lockers which 
contain important components that 
will aid any repair. 

Each section of the droid can be 
moved independently, but it's no 
use moving only one at a time. If 
you are to do this job properly you 
must get the droids working simul- 
taneously. 

For this you will need to spend 
a bit of time programming a single 
droid. This involves detailing a 
route for it to travel and repairing 
faulty equipment that has been 
damaged by the alien intruders. 

Once the program is ready, run 
it and away it goes, performing the 
tasks you instructed it. If a pro- 
grammed droid comes under attack 
it will not fight back and will even- 
tually become disabled. Damaged 
droid sections can be picked up by 
others and taken back to be 
repaired. 

First Contact is all about getting 
the upper hand, and keeping it. If 
you allow the aliens to get ahead, 
repositioning yourself as the leader 
in this long battle is going to be dif- 
ficult. 

One of the things which lets the 
game down is the fact that there is 
no scrolling, the screen simply 
flips when you reach the edge. 
However, the graphics are good 
and very detailed. 

Movement is well handled, right 
down to aliens jumping over fallen 
droids. As arcade strategy games 
go, this has got to be one of the bet- 
ter ones this year, though that isn't 
saying much. 

Andrew Banner 



First Contact 

£24.99 

Rainbird 





The programming language is slightly more advanced than Amiga Bask 



Overall - 72% 




Sigoumey Wearer you re not - but you'd better waste that alien before he does some damage 



42 AMIGA COMPUTING /tins J 880 



GAMES 




BEING a handsome, manly 
hero can be a bit of a drag 
sometimes, let me tell you. For 
Fred it was worse. Since he was 
such a hero, he inevitably fell in 
love with a beautiful girly. Since he 
was handsome, she inevitably fell 
in love with him. Since he was 
manly, he was inevitably despised 
by the local Dwarven King. 

Now this king ordered his right- 
hand sorcerer to turn Fred into a 
bit of a weed, and an ugly one at 
that. Result? The girly, being fickle, 
as they tend to be, loves him no 
longer and the Dwarven king has a 
seven stone weakling gunning for 
him. 

Rather than write to Charlie 
Atlas, Fred immediately sets out on 
his arcade adventure type quest to 
become handsome again. Armed 
only with his sword and a few 
throwing knives he takes on the 
Dwarven Empire. 

Funny animations, adequate 
sound effects and weird strategy as 
you try to deal with the effects of 





"depth" to the screen, the action 
taking place in up to four planes, 
one behind the other. 

Certainly an interesting arcade 
adventure approached in an inter- 
esting way. 

Green 



Fred 
£24.95 
Ubi Soft 



WITH the kind of setup 
slightly reminiscent of 
TimeScanner, you must hit the right 
pegs, score the right bonuses and 
then shoot your little metal friend 
out a tunnel into the next levels. 

There are 12 levels in Pinball 
Magic, each with a completely dif- 
ferent layout, all of them interest- 
ing and clever. 

As pinball sims go this is one of 
the bettor ones, though there is no 
multi-ball feature. No one has got 
the flipper action right yet either. 

Although entertaining, a grey 



hardware-sprite will never take the 
place of the silver ball. Green 



Pinball Magic 
£19.95 
US Gold 







lEESEiail 



.1^ Irani. 1 1 17 



r^tr n t tti 



TORPEDO LAUNCHED CAPTAIN 



O 1 :Q4:5G i Q0:04:EE 



Priviet, Glavnokomanduyushehij 



DEEP plots are usually few and 
far between in the gaming 
world. Unless it involves sub- 
marines, of course. The plot of 688 
tends to concentrate on the latest in 
technical gadgetry rather than the 
humdrum mechanics of submarine 
piloting. 

You have many different types of i 
map display, ranging from a overhead 
view with several levels of zoom, to I 
the latest in high- frequency contour 
mapping systems which will produce 
a wireframe version of the seabed 
around you. 

The periscopic-view graphics have 
either been digitised or brilliantly 
drawn, They aren't animated, more 
sort of redrawn for each new shot. 
This takes a second or so, but when- 
ever you surface among a convoy of 
destroyers and the helicopters start 



buzzing you, that one second delay is 
the only respite you'll get. 

Images of the crew members are 
definitely digitised, and what a 
grumpy looking bunch they are. They 
didn't even cheer up when I gave 
them a week's leave in San Francisco. 

The best way to make your sonar 
operator happy is to deploy a towed 
array of hydrophones to let him lis- 
ten out for approaching craft. You 
can help him even more by selecting 
high or band pass filters and per- 
forming a frequency analysis of the 
incoming signal. 

Once you have a fix and move 
within range, you can release your tor- 
pedoes or launch a couple of surface- 
to-surface missiles. For the sake of 
improved gameplay, the temptation to 
use nuclear weapons has been 
removed. There aren't any, Good show. 



A slightly less moral problem fac- 
ing all simulation designers is that of 
choosing a realistic time rate. A real 
torpedo might travel for upwards of 
30 minutes, which would drag a game 
out for days. Conversely, a helicopter 
might fly overhead in a matter of sec- 
onds. This means that simply com- 
pressing time is not an option. 

The best solution, according to the 
creators of 688, is to fiddle the fig- 
ures. Any why not? The result is a 
fast-moving, exciting challenge that 
all simulists will enjoy. 

The 10 missions can be played 
using either the American Los 
Angeles or Russian Alfa class of sub. 
For some reason the Russian subs are 
all slightly less well equipped and 
more grimey looking than the 
American ones. 

At least the options are in pseudo- 



Russian, which just about makes up 
for it. A few years ago, getting to play 
a Red wouldn't even have been 
implemented. 

If you have only been interested in 
flight simulators before, perhaps now 
is the time to try a different challenge 
- about 1500ft under water. 

John Kennedy 



688 Sub Attack 
£24.95 
Electronic Arts 




Overall - 82% 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 43 



r 



■ 



Ladbroke Computing 
International 



ST World 
'Best Dealer' 1989 




'33 Ormskirk Rd, Preston, Lanes, PR1 2QP] 

Open Mon. to Sat. 9:00 am to 5.00pm 

Dealer enquiries welcome. 



We were voted Best Dealer by the readers of ST World because we give our customers the best available service. All Software and Hardware is fully 
tested prior to purchase. All prices include VAT. Delivery, in Mainland UK, is free on orders over £100 (add £5 for courier delivery). All prices are 
correct at copy date, 11/04/90 and are subject to change without prior notice. All prices are accurate while stocks last. Phone for up to date prices. 

K<«maMaMiltMJ.iv.v:.v^v-iv-iw.vv:- 11 :v!,,,!i..!v|. 



^;-;v.w.v.--.-. T .-.-.-,Y.v.-.-.Y-' 



Amiga Drives 



lYI 



Vortex 40Mb £ 499.99 

Supra 30 Mb £ 674.99 

Third Coast 65 Mb £ 659.99 

Cumana 1 Mb floppy, disable switch and 
through port (New slimline low noise model 
CAX 354) £ 69.99 

Cumana 1Mb 5 1/4" floppy drive, disable 
switch and through port, 40/80 track 



switahfCAX 1000S). 
isk drive dustcover 



129.99 
2.99 



A4 Flat Bed Scanner 



This high quality 200dpi flat bed scanner is 
also a thermal printer and photocopier. It can 
scan high resolution images in up to 16 grey 
scales. Software and cable are provided for the 
ST or Amiga with 1Mb of memory or more. 
The software allows capture, printing, load 
and save of images in a number of formats 
(ST software includes image editor). Ideal for 
DTP, this is probably the most cost effective 
piece of office equipment you could own. 



Peripherals 




,■.■,-,■.■■-,■■■■-.,-■-.-■■■-,. 



A2000 PC-XT bridgeboard 
A2000 PC-AT bridgeboard 
Master sound sampler 
2Mb RAM expansion for A500 
Midi Master 1 in, 1 thru, 3 out 
AMAX Mac emulator 
128K Mac ROM's 
AMAS Sound sampler 
Digi-view gold V3.0 
Semi-Professional quality genlock 
Studio quality genlock 



558.99 
792.99 

34.99 
539.99 

32.99 
124.99 
phone 

91.99 
137.99 
275.99 
793.99 



Quality 3.5" Disks 



Quantity 



10 



100 



Unbranded 
Loose Boxed 



Sony 



£6.99 £7.99 



£9.99 



£64.99 £74.99 



£89.99 



All our disks are top quality Sony, Mascell or Kao products. All 
s carry mi unconditional lifetime guarantee. Please add 60p 
pip for each pack of ten disks. 



Monitors 



Philips 8833 colour, stereo monitor. A best- 
selling monitor which exploits the excellent 
sound quality of the Amiga. £249.99 

Philips 8802 colour, mono monitor £239.99 

Philips 15" FST Remote, Scart input, Teletext 
Tv with 60 tuner presets. £ 259.99 



Commodore 1084 



phone 



An Amiga to scart cable is included with 
monitors only. 



Price Beaters 



Joysticks from £4.99 

Trak ball converted to work as mouse on 

Amiga £19.99 

Mouse mats from £5.99 

A500 Dustcover £3.99 

Printer Dustcover £7.99 

Monitor Dustcover £4.99 

3.5" disk care kit £5.99 

80/100 disk box £9.99 




backed calendar/clock, retains time/date on switch off. * Amazing low 
price, 

512K RAM Extension board 

5I2K RAM Extension board + clock 

512K RAM Extension board, populated 

512K RAM Extension board + clock, populated 

KOur trained technicians can repair all hardware, including 
^ Amigas, in minimum time at competitive rates. 



n 



* Available with or without calendar/clock. * Plugs easily into A500 slot 
so no soldering. * Switch provided to switch RAM in/out. * Battery 



£24.99 
£34.99 
£64.99 
£74.99 



I 



jL 



PackUBatman pack, mouse, modulator £369.99 

Pack2=Batman + pack, mouse mat, joystick, Tenstar pack £399.99 
Pack3=Batman class of 90's pack £549.99 

Pack 4=Packl + 512K RAM extension £429.99 

Pack S=Pack 1 + CM8833 Colour Monitor £609.99 

Pack 6 =Pack 4 + CM8833 Colour Monitor £674.99 

Amiga 2000 Pack includes A2000, PC-XT bridgeboard, 5 1/4" drive, 
20Mb Amiga/MS-DOS hard drive, 1084S colour monitor £1585 

Phone for other combinations of hardware / software. J 



Quality Low Price and Professional Series Printers 



is 



Star LC-10 Best-Selling mono 9 pin £ 

Star LC-10 2 faster version of LC-10 £ 

Star LC-10 Colour 9 pin, 7 colour printer £ 

Star LC-24/10 24 pin mono excellent quality £ 

Citizen Swift 192/64cps 24 pin mono. £ 

Citizen 120D 9 pin mono. Lowest price £ 
Atari SLM804 Laser Printer, 90 days on site warranty £ 1099.99 



169.99 • 

189.99 * 

209.99 * 

239.99 * 

319.99 * 

134.99 * 



Star FR-10 mono 9 pin, 300 cps draft elite, 16 NLQ fonts £ 527.99 

Star FR-15 15" carriage version of above 

Star XB-24/10 24 pin SLQ, LQ, 240cps draft elite 

Star XB-24/15 15" carriage version of above 

7 colour upgrade kit for XB-24/10 and XB-24/15 
Star Laser Printer 8, 1 Mb memory, 8 resident fonts, 

8 pages per min, 300 Dpi 



£ 688.99 * 

£ 688.99 * 

£ 907.99 * 

£ 39.99 

£ 1599.99 * 



* All these printers come complete with Amiga cable 



(0772) 203166 Fax 561071 

I jdwrAc Cnrrvputing Intern atfnul tf i trading mme of Walton Mutating r im itcd 



'If* .isxist its in processing t your 
order please quote this code 

SAM23 



GAMES 



/^TTWT T/TXTn 



r^T% TTiTl A /^T* T^TTWTi^ 






V I Ll I 



Crown prince of cards 




Stock Discard Knock 




WHILE at university I always 
fancied myself as a bit of a 
Gin King. 1 would stay in my room 
all day sometimes, hunched over a 
table with a bottle of Gin. That was 
before I started writing for, hie, 
excuse me, for Amiga Computing 
of course. 

Gin King and Cribhage King are 
similar in that not only do they use 
a deck of cards but you have a 
choice of playing against one of 
seven opponents, each of varying 
skills and tactics. 

During play you can even get a 
hint out of one of these fictional 
players. In fact, all the help begins 
to resemble the sort of features you 
might find on one of the myriad 
chess programs about. I suppose 
this isn't really very surprising 
because the programs are written 
by those responsible for 
Chessmaster 2000 and the forth- 
coming 2100 version. 

If you don't understand the rules 
of either of these games then this is 
the perfect opportunity to learn 
with the on-screen help and a list 
of the rules. There are seven play- 
ers with varying skills and strate- 
gies to practice against, as well as 
to seek help from. 

The graphics are excellently 
copied from an authentic pack of 
American playing cards. If you 
don't believe it, a pack of the origi- 



nals is included. These are the first 
cards I've seen on-screen that actu- 
ally look like cards - they are a lit- 
tle square, probably because, 
unfortunately, both Cribhage King 
and Gin King run in NTSC. 

Both games are OS friendly and 
will multi-task, but if you're plan- 
ning on running anything along- 
side them you'd better invest some 
dosh in chips of the ram variety. 

A lot of thought has gone into 
these games, as you would expect 
from Software Toolworks. The 
accompanying manuals are very 
informative. In the case of the crib- 
hage one the game is broken down 
into the relevant statistics that pro 
players know off by heart. 

Quite reasonable money for a 
good and potentially inexhaustibly 
entertaining game. Much better 
than killing aliens. 

Green 



Gin KinglCribbage King 

£29.99 

Mindscape 



Strategy 
Graphics 



mn 



w 



im 



Gameplay j fl I I I Iffi" 
Value [IUJIIUDIIT 



Overall - 87% 





Rocks, sand, sun and Frenchmen 



EVERY once in a white a group I 
of people decide to go from 
Paris to Dakar. Rather than doing 
the sensible thing and flying there, 
they use whatever kind of motor 
vehicle they can find -cars, motor- I 
bikes or trucks. 

Much of the terrain is like a j 
small Bed and Breakfast on a cold, j 
wet Friday evening. Inhospitable. 
Much of it is desert. This is conve- 
nient because it means that game 
designers don't have to think about j 
the colour of the landscape. 

With the addition of a few 
hillocks, rocks, place markers, cat- 
tle skulls (dessicated) and ruined 
temples (desecrated), you have 
yourself a passable desert. 

Alternatively you could add half 
a ton of custard and have a pass- 
able dessert. Although a dessert 
wouldn't have the obligatory strip 
of scrolling mountains two-thirds 
of the way up the screen. 



At the very start you must 
endure a rather badly sampled 
tune, which is built from a very 
few, very long samples - and very 
muffled, to boot. 

Next you must do a colour code 
routine, which has a nasty habit of 
crashing even when you get it 
right, and then it's on to the game 
itself. 

You must choose whether you 
want to drive a plain 4x4, a modi- 
fied 4x4, or a prototype 4x4, They 
all look identical, so you can't go 
for the snazziest. 

The curious thing is, even 
though the basic machine uses 
diesel and the prototype uses high 
octane, they're all filled from the 
same pump, by the same mildly 
disreputable looking garagiste. 

What's worse, all the engines 
make the same noise, so next time 
your 16-valve sounds like a taxi, 
you'll know not to worry. 




And now to the game - I call it 
that, for it is customary to do so. 
What you have to do is follow two 
sparse lines of place markers along 
a curving and undulating route of 
uniform light sandy-brownness. 

The navigator has a map that it 
may be an idea to follow, showing 
roughly where you should be head- 
ing, and exactly where you are 
heading. These, more often than 
not, do not match up, so it's all 
down to following the markers. 

There are some rather bad ideas 
to follow, showing animated inter- 
ludes between stages, and it would 



be better not to dwell on these, for 
they are, in the most part, a com- 
plete waste of time. 

There are also inter-stage stages, 
where you have a map, but it 
doesn't actually tell you where to 
go. Pretty useful, huh? Just think of 
the fortunes to be made in blank 
maps... 

And that's the game. There is a 
competition to be won if you do 
very, very well. But I suppose if 
you can bring yourself to do very, 
very well in Paris-Dakar, you 
deserve all the praise you can get. 

But I'm just an average mortal, 




Extending the international hand of friendship in the shape of a 40 megaton missile 



BACK in the Fifties there was a 
film called Fail Safe. It 
starred Henry Fonda and dealt 
with the possibility of an acciden- 
tal nuclear war initiated by human 
error and carried out by machines. 
This is not that story. 

Around the same period there 
was a film called Dr Strangelove 
[the animated title sequence even 
copies a bit of the film) which 
dealt with an almost identical set 



of circumstances but starred Peter 
Sellers, and so was a bit funnier. 
This is almost that story. 

Your country needs YOU, Being 
the leader of a little island par- 
adise, the populace have entrusted 
you with their safety, Guard your 
five major conurbations jealously, 
for other leaders are out to steal 
your people. 

Four other countries are repre- 
sented in the game, each with a 



despotic dictator who would rather 
initiate armageddon than lock up 
his grandmother. And we ail know 
how much they enjoy doing that. 

These four leaders can be cho- 
sen from any of 10, including 
Ghanji, Colonel Kadaffy, Infidel 
Castro and P.M.Satcher. 

Any similarity with persons liv- 
ing or dead is, of course, entirely 
coincidental. 

Your adversaries, as do all world 



leaders, fall into one of five general 
categories: Pacifists, madmen, liars, 
warmongers and standard, what- 
ever that might entail. 

If you know the type of leader 
you are facing you have a better 
chance of predicting his next move. 
Thinking ahead is jolly important 
in this game. 

Develop your own independent 
nuclear deterrent to "help keep the 
peace" - 1 mean, you'd never actu- 
ally use it, would you? Nuclear 
warheads may be delivered by mis- 
siles or by bombers such as the NP- 
1 (Nuclear Postman). 

Gear up your peoples to manu- 
facture the weapons of destruction. 
There's nothing wrong with being 
prepared for war, is there? It's not 
that you were planning to initiate 
it, after all. Try putting that one 
past Ayatollah Kookamamie. 

As well as the standard destruc- 
tion by enemy action, a few ran- 
dom accidents may befall your 
cities. 

Earthquakes, nuclear accidents, 
falling IB ton weights (nobody 
knows where they come from} and 
Cattletech - a vicious form of com- 



46 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



GAMES 




with an average ennui threshold, 
and I couldn't handle it. 

In motorsport you'd expect a 
certain amount of crashing to go 
on. But not the kind that quite 
often happens with Paris-Dakar - 
you know, the sort that involves 
flashing red boxes and Guru 
Meditation numbers. Sigh. 

Stewart C, Russell 



Paris-Dakar 

£19.95 

Tomahawk 




Overall - 47% 




The steering wheel is on the ivrong side 



; 



hat where a herd of cattle is cata- 
pulted into enemy territory before 
stampeding through She down- 
town bars and hamburger stands. 

UFOs do exist and they are 
watching you at this moment. 
They find earthman antics very 
amusing and would do anything 
to perpetuate it. Like cloning 
cities for example. Watch the 



The graphical representation of 
Gravedigger missiles homing in 
for a groundburst is lovely. Many 
is the afternoon I could sit back 
and watch the last battle unfold 
on my monitor. Sound effects are 
amusing if not state of the ait. 
Maybe that's why Truman sent up 
the Enola Gaye. 

There is a lot of strategy 
involved to make sure the rusty 
wire that holds the cork that 
keeps the anger in stays in place. 
Some leaders are very volatile 
indeed. 

It's not only great fun if you're 
into major devastation and things 
like that, but there is a good hit of 
thinking to be done. 

When someone wants to 



-kUkl JL.LV III JLJLV 

Try a little tenderness 



launch a missile, for example, it 
takes two turns. At the end of the 
first turn the missile is on the pad. 
Now, who is it pointed at? Should 
you deploy a defence system? Hdw 
well you can interpret the actions 
of your fellow despots determines 
your own, and the world's, sur- 
vival. 

Lucinda Orr 



Nuclear War 
£19.95 
US Gold 




Overall - 82% 



Xuclear devastation 

at your fingertips. 

More hardware than 

Texas Homecare 




J i n i Farmer t arge t ed 
iby your nissi le. 
126 negaton pay load, 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 47 



GAMES 



Ktmfjidi 



CRYSTALLION 



No bones about it 




BORDERING on the games 
mainstream, many new gen- 
res are born - and die just as 
quickly. To survive on the fringes 
of popular alien-blasting, a game 
has to be something special - dif- 
ferent and worthwhile. 

Knights of the Crystallion is an 
attempt to prove that there can be 
more to computer entertainment 
than laser death squads, alien inva- 
sions and end of level monsters. 

Imagine a whole ecosystem 
evolving on the skeleton of a long 
dead sea creature, the Orodrid. 
Imagine the culture which would 
spring up on such an environment, 
where groups of families live on 
different ribs of the gargantuan car- 
cass, each self-sufficient in terms of 
produce. 

Imagine the local shaymen, con- 
trolling all the intellectual and 
spiritual concerns of this enclave, 
this proiosystem for biocultural 
development. 



You can stop imagining now - 
play Knights of the Crystallion. 

the aim is, not surprisingly, to 
become a Knight of the Crystallion. 
A Crystallion is a clear crystal 
horse, born from the fossilised 
brain cells of the immense Orodrid. 

The Crystallion is no beast of 
burden but a creature of strength, 
intelligence and beauty. Only the 
wise and the accomplished can 
have one as a companion. The 
friendship of such a beast is a high 
honour. 

The enlightenment which leads 
to this goal is both on the mental 
and physical planes. You must 
form a spiritual bond with the 
Crystallion long before you meet it. 
Play Deketa, a kind of Pelmanism, 
to sharpen your telepathic powers, 
and Bosu, a game which requires 
you to make (he most of small 
resources. 

Travel through the Veils of 
Tsimit to retrieve crystals from the 



skull of the Orodrid, before finally 
making your way to the inner sanc- 
tum and the Crystallion egg, from 
which your Crystallion will be 
born, 

All this must not be at the cost 
of your ordinary existence how- 
ever. As head of a family in one of 
the Orodrid cooperatives, or 
Hareshs, you have a great financial 
responsibility. Trade must be inves- 
tigated and planned and the needs 
of your family well looked after. 

Knights is completely mouse 
driven, from the menu selections to 
the movement of your character 
through the twisty mazes of the 
Tsimit. There is no formal structure 
to the game, play takes place in any 



Knights oflhe Crystallion 

£24.95 

US Gold 



Aura 


Hit 


mm 








Graphics 


■H 


HZ] 








Gamcplay 


Mil; 


■ IMI 








Value 




HI 



Overall - 80% 



of the parts you specify, so you can 
concentrate on different areas if 
you wish. 

If I was to describe the graphics 
as atmospheric I would be doing 
the game a great dis-service. They 
are truly works of art. The opening 
sequences and some of the later 
frames have the tell-tale signs of 
being ray traced, and well ray 
traced at that. 

Financial strategy, arcade acu- 
men and severe powers in the old 
grey matter department are needed 
to make a success of yourself in 
this fantasy world. There is quite a 
lot of thinking to this bit. 

Making your way through the 
veils of the Tsimit is the only dis- 
appointing part. The maze and the 
shadow effects are good, but the 
hostile inhabitants are poorly ani- 
mated. 

Knights of the Crystallion repre- 
sents a complete cultural simula- 
tion. Do yourself and your Amy a 
favour and buy this instead of the 
next "hottest" shoot-'em up. 

Colin Turner 





The main mem. Click on one of the options if you can catch it 



A game to test your cunning, if you don't win you'll never see the Crystallion 



48 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




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GAMES 




Who's going So tn'n today's game of Countdown 



MAD scientists, threats to 
overthrow the world, Bah! 
Sounds a bit boring. No, hang on a 
minute... What's this? He has cre- 
ated an army of biogeneticaliy engi- 
neered humanoids blah blah crush 
all opposition blah blah two special 
agents blah blah must penetrate his 
fortress blah blah destroy each sec- 
tion with detonation devices- 
Excellent! A murder mayhem 
explosive unnecessary violence sit- 
uation. My favourite. 

Why don't these scenario writers 
just come right out with it at the 
beginning? 

The situation is this: You, and a 
friend if you have one, run around 
a sort of maze killing people and 
planting bombs on the large red 
crosses someone has very gener- 
ously painted on the ground for 
you. Then you run away very 
quickly before everything blows 
up. This continues until the mad 
professor has run out of things for 
you to blow up, so you have to 
blow him up instead. 



Before you start laying the vio- 
lence guilt trip on me here, remem- 
ber these are bio-engineered 
monstrosities, not humans. OK, so 
they look a bit like humans and 
they sort of do humanish things, 
but they're not, so that makes it 
OK, Doesn't it? 

What do you mean, "No"? Well, 
if you're going to be like that I shall 
have to ask you to leave this 
review. No, you too. 

Armed only with your bare fists, 
a light machine-gun and a sub- 
mesonic nuclear auto-cannon you 
must combat the foes of humanity 
as you traverse level after mazey 
level of baddie hideouts, shortly 
before they blow up. You are a 
mean avenger and an angry one at 
that. Mind you, wouldn't anyone 
be if Mr and Mrs Breaker (yup, 
s'right) had named them Ben. 

A radar scanner at the top of the 
screen will let you know where 
you are, where the crosses are, 
where any ammo to be picked up is 
and loads of other useful informa- 



CRACKDOWN 

Before you break up 




Teamwork -Ben hides in the carpark whilst Andy plants a bomb 



tion which I have temporarily for- 
gotten. 

The really excellent thing about 
this boisterously addictive game is 
the way combat takes place. It isn't 
just the odd exchange of laser 
death, may the person with the 
fastest trigger finger win - a bit of 
stealth is involved, too. 

You can crawl along flat against 
walls, sneak up behind 
people and biff them before they 
know what's happening. All poten- 
tial adversaries show some signs of 
intelligence. Well, they're not too 
hot at getting out of the way when 
you blast them, but they know an 
infiltrating scumsucker when they 
see one and will waste little time 
in trying to establish contact with 
you, usually via a flamethrower. 

Two-player mode is good. When 
you are cooperating not only do 
you have double the firepower but 
you can also do the old decoy 
dodge. 

Picture, if you will, a packing 
crate, which has a baddie behind 



it. From one side nimbly dances 
Player One and with some foot- 
work that could out-Fred any bud- 
ding Astaire he dodges the odd 
bullet. 

Meanwhile Player Two appears 
on the scene from somewhere stage 
left, that is to say behind the bad- 
die. A burst of sporadic fire later 
and the world is a safer place. 

It's the same old story really in 
terms of sound and graphics, but 
the excellent gameptay elevates it 
that little bit above the crowd. 

Green 



Crackdown 
£19.95 
IS Gold 




Overall - 77% 







IN space, they say, nobody can 
hear you go to the toilet. This 
is probably something to do with 
all those nasty in-suit devices. 
Whatever the reason, it's a good 
job. Something big is going down. 

An alien horde has laid eggs all 
over the Alpha II moon research 
station. Unfortunately it is not 
merely a job of flying in on a giant 
can of Raid and doing a bit of 
ozone-destroying eradication. 

These suckers have hidden 
themselves around the complex, 
killing the occupants and are now 
generally hanging out and threaten- 
ing to hatch. 

Only one man is in a position to 
stop them from devastating all of 
humankind. Now who could that 
be, I wonder? As agent Kal Solar it 
is up to you to save the universe. 
Oh well, it's a dirty job but- 
Flying in on your jet-pack you 
will have an awful experience of 
deja-vu. Haven't we been through 
this alt before? Oh, I remember, 
how silly of me - it was that time 
when I saved the universe before, 
something to do with the dark side 
of somewhere. 

From here on be sure to keep the 
instructions close at hand. One 
false function key and you may 
depressurise your suit. Check your 
spigot! 



The moon surface is crawling 
with all sorts of nasty tlungs. First 
of all there's the indigenous life- 
form, a sort of giant ant whose silly 
expression is only matched by its 
poisonous venom. Secondly there 
are the patrol droids. Oh, didn't 1 
tell you that most of the comput- 
erised systems were under alien 
control? Well, it's too late to go 
back now. 

Gain access to the base and you 
can breath a little easier, mainly 
because most places indoors have a 
nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. Now 
you can take off the helmet and 
conserve your oxygen supply. 

Not only does this give you a 
wider field of vision but it also 
tones down those breathing sound 
effects, which are actually jolly 
good. 

Make your way through the war- 
ren of passageways that make up 
the base. The HUD inside your hel- 
met will give you lots of useful 
information. Well, maybe not. But 
it looks nice. So does the detail 
inside the helmet. 

Filled polygon graphics with 
only a few teensy-weensy buglets 
here and there create the atmo- 
sphere inside the base. Refresh 
speeds are the fastest I've seen in 
this type of complex landscape. 

Search out the eggs and then 




give them a dose of cyanide 
(remember to close your visor first 
though). The place is not heavily 
defended by aliens, you are more 
likely to meet an accident, but 
remember - recent statistics show 
that most accidents happen in the 
moonbase. 



Apart from asphyxiation and 
radiation leaks you could easily 
freeze to death, starve or even shut 
yourself in a door. 

There is a maze of ventilator 
shafts to explore. They don't seem to 
do much ventilating. The plans look 
like thi'v might have been drawn up 




GAMES 




by the same bloke that did the gar- 
dening at Hampton Court. 

If you find the relevant key a lift 
will take you up and down the 
complex. In this game it is impor- 
tant to ignore Mungo's advice. If 
you hang around to make sure that 
the lift door is closed you may be 



there for longer than you expected. 
A game that demands bravery, 
courage, cunning, dedication and a 
fanatical hatred of egg-shaped 
polygons. Off you go now and 
remember, the universe is counting 
on you. Check your spigot! 

Green 





AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 53 



GAMES 




MEANWHILE, in a galaxy far 
away, the story continues. 
You are an honest space faring 
merchant-marine, taking part in an 
ordinary trading voyage in the 
Karonus star system. 

Suddenly you come across an 
abandoned ship, apparently 
unharmed, apparently lifeless. You 
take an EVA and float across to 
have a look. 

But disaster strikes! Just as you 
board, 10 fighter craft of the evil 
Manchi insect race appear out of 
hyperspace. Before your very eyes, 
your vessel is mercilessly 
vapourised with all hands. 

Then as quickly as they 
appeared, the fighters vanish, leav- 
ing you alone in a cruel universe 
with a strange ship and no idea of 
what to do next. 

So you rummage around in the 
glove compartment and look for 
the Owner's Guide, This explains 
exactly how you can go about fly- 
ing your new command, The Jolly 
Roger, with either keyboard, joy- 
stick or mouse. 

The previous owner - whoever 
or whatever it was - was a mucky 
devil and has left fingerprinis, cof- 
fee mug rings and even little notes 
in the margins. 

He, she or it has also left a colour- 
ful poster sized star chart, a short 
novella and two cardboard cut-out 
model spaceships. Nice touch. 

By reading the guide and play- 
ing with the controls you can even- 
tually reach the nearest space 
station. After docking, the display 
switches from the simple three 
dimensional solid view to a two 
dimensional overhead one. 

You wander around the station, 
bumping into people and generally 
trying to find out as much informa- 
tion as you can. Amusement pre- 
sents itself in the form of the latest 
arcade sensation to sweep the 
galaxy. 

Playing a game within a game is 
not a new idea by a long way, but 
it's fun. Makes a welcome break. 
Plus, Hive will award a prize if you 
make it past the last screen, so it 
can't be bad. 

Non-gamers may be better off 
visiting the bar for a quickie. If you 
knock back one too many you may 
find manoeuvring between the 
walls a bit on the tricky side. It 
seems strangely familiar... 

Once you have found out as 



much as you can, or have been 
evicted for trying to do something 
you shouldn't, you can leave the 
station and enter one of hyperspace 
gates with the inevitable "flying 
through coloured circles" stage. 
Then you start exploring all over 
again. 

The overall aim is to discover 
why the Manchi destroyed your 
original vessel and perhaps save 
the universe in the process. And 
why not? 

From the packaging and adver- 
tising blurb surrounding Space 
Rogue, I was unsure what sort of 
game it would eventually turn out 
to he. The end result is a 3D shoot- 
'em-up, 2D role-playing, strategic 
arcade game. 

A bit like the last budget; not 
very taxing. Well, a good deal more 
enjoyable. 

John Kennedy 



Space Rogue 

£24.95 

Origin 




~~5> 



-J- ■ — 








TT1 



STATUS 
QUERY 
SCAN 
COCKPIT 



iinimiiiiiiiiimmmmiuHii | 

I RLERT I 

•■- — i i i 



1Z:BB HRS 
BU HAR 12 



Ship has arrived at destination 



Overall - 67% 



Plot a course to the nearest space station, then dock by crashing into it. Simple, eh? 




Hive! The greatest game to sweep the cosmos 



54 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



ALL FOR ST OR AMIGA 




GOLDRUNNER 

Our top selling 

shoot em up from 

Steve Bak and 

Pete Lyon. 



ELECTRONIC 

POOL .'. 

Mono or colour 

version of 'Video 

Pool' arcade 

game. 



JUPITER PROBE 

Vertically 

scrolling shoot 

em up by Steve 

Bak. 



KARATE KID 
PART 2 

Our top selling 
karate game. 




AIRBALL 

Over 200 rooms 

of strategic 

arcade action, 

graphics from 

Pete Lyon! 



GOLDRUNNER2 

Sequel to our top 

selling shoot em 

up, high speed 

action packed 

arcade game. 



LEATHERNECK 

Reviewed as the 

best arcade war 

game, program by 

Steve Bak. 



TETRA QUEST 

Over 300 screens 
of arcade 
strategy. 



MAJOR 
MOTION 





,-*>— ****, 

Wfrwto 




MAJOR 
MOTION 

Spy car chase 
arcade game. 



SLAYGON 
ADVENTURE 

Stop Cyber 

Dynamics ruling 

the world in this 

graphic 

adventure. 



TANGLEWOOD 
ADVENTURE 

Rated as one of 

the best 16 bit 

graphic 

adventures. 



TIME BANDIT , 

Top selling arcade 

adventure, the 
original ST Mega 

game. 




'THE GRAIL' 
ADVENTURE 

Full size 
adventure 

programmed 
using our 
Talespin 

development 
system. 



INTERNATIONAL 
SOCCER 

Soccer action at 

its best in our 
own soccer game. 



J.U.G. 

Highly rated 

arcade game with 

4 way scrolling. 



ABZOO 

EDUCATIONAL 

SOFTWARE 

Preschool to 8. 
Helps character 
recognition and 
spelling with 
funny and serious 
A to Z pictures. 



THE 

£3.99 

GAME IS HERE! 

NO CLUBS TO JOIN, NO 
HIDDEN CHARGES, JUST 
£3.99 A GAME PLUS 50p 

POST & PACKING 

ALL THE GAMES 

REALLY ARE JUST 

£3.99 EACH. 

I OWN AN 

ST □ AMIGA □ 
Please send me: 



GOLDRUNNER 

ELECTRONIC POOL 

JUPITER PROBE 

KARATE KID PART 2 

AIRBALL 

GOLDRUNNER 2 

LEATHERNECK 

TETRA QUEST 

MAJOR MOTION 

SLAYGON ADVENTURE 

TANGLEWOOD 
ADVENTURE 

TIME BANDIT 
THE GRAIL' ADVENTURE 
INTERNATIONAL SOCCER 
J.U.G. 

ABZOO EDUCATIONAL 
SOFTWARE 

NAME 



Qty 

□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 

□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 

□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 
□ 

□ 



ADDRESS. 



POSTCODE. 

SENDME^ 



.TITLES 



at£4.49(50pp&p) 
TOTAL ENCLOSED £_ 



CREDIT CARD TYPE. 
No 



EXPIRY DATE 



Allow 28 days for delivery 



Post to: 



O 



software 



PO Box 68, St. Austell, PL25 4YB 
or phone with credit cards 




0726 68020 



GAMES 




IT'S a funny thing, but you can 
usually tell a program's country 
of origin after playing with it for 
about 20 seconds. Take French 
games, for example; nine times out 
of ten they have seriously weird 
graphics, Jean Michel jarre-type 
music and a severe lack of game- 
play, 

German games have animated 
copper lists and more scrolling 
messages than Jolyon Ralph, 
whereas British games - if they're 
not just a coin-op conversion - 
concentrate primarily on func- 
tional graphics and horrid Top-of- 
the-Pops music. Then there are 
American games... 

Americans have a great attitude 
to copy protection. They don't like 
it much. One of the reasons is that 
quite a few Stateside Amiga own- 
ers have hard drives, and will want 
to install the game to speed things 
up and get rid of all that tedious 
disc swapping. They demand that 
games are easy to use and techie 
friendly. 

Like Colony, for instance, which 
comes on two floppies, needs one 
megabyte of ram and will work in 
harmony with an A590. It also goes 
OTT in the way that interlace 
mode and colours can be decided 
before play. More like running an 
art package than a game. 

However, a game it claims to be. 



And it comes with a plot that is 
mind staggering in its originality. It 
hasn't any. A colony far, far away 
on the very frontier of space has 
been overrun. All communications 
have ceased. 

Guess what? Yup, you're the 
only Space Marshal nearby and 
you'll have to go and rescue every- 
one. If that doesn't sound like 
Aliens then I'm a mutating slime 
monster. 

The author states he first had the 
idea for the game in 1983, and it 
looks as though this is when it was 
written. Graphics are solid, 3D and 
dull. Detail is limited, meaning 
they move quite quickly, but the 
refresh rate can be increased still 
further by switching to vector 
graphics only. Very Battlezone. 

Whenever you approach an 
object such as a control panel or 
computer screen, the display 
changes to a 2D monochrome dis- 
play. Yuck! 

The graphics seem to have been 




He's hard, J 



> Space Marshall A] 



ported from a mono Mac and are 
grim. Objects can be moved 
around, desk drawers opened and 
vital clues uncovered. Aha - right 
at the back of this drawer I do 
believe we have the Reactor startup 
code. 

Death comes quickly in Colony. 
Make one mistake, press the wrong 
button, and you're dead. Instantly. 
No questions asked, no reasons 
given. Just a quick scream, a flash 
of colours and the Game Over 
requester appears. 

Some sort of reason for your 
demise is needed because constant, 



unexplained destruction tends to 
get on your wick after a while. To 
be honest it gets on your wick from 
the very start. 

Sound effects are limited. The 
title music consists of a two second 
passage sampled from Hoist's 
Planet Suite. Mars, I believe. 
Obviously no expense spent in the 
sonics department. There are occa- 
sional little jokes, such as the 
sound produced when you bump 
into the toilet, but nothing to lift it 
up to average. 

Colony looks severely out of 
date. Back in the 8 bit days it might 




The Reactor Room - 
home of many a 
sudden death 



have been acceptable, state-of-the- 
art even. Today, it's history. Its 
only hope for salvation is that 
ardent space cliche fans will flock 
in their thousands to re-live the 
adventure. Again. 

If you persevere, there is an 
adventure to be played, and a 
tough one at that. Finding it is the 
hardest part of all. 

John Kennedy 



AMIGA COMPUTING /line 1990 



GAMES 




KID GLOVES 

Born in the USA? 




JUST when you thought it was 
absolutely safe to declare the 
platform game extinct, another 
one pops up to say a big "Hi" to all 
semi-sentient beings everywhere. 
And it is customary for the 
reviewer to reminisce about late 
nights spent playing Manic Miner 
by the light of a 48k ZX Spectrum. 

Well, not this reviewer; never 
owned a Spectrum, and never 
really liked platform games. Aha, 
say you, there'd better be some- 
thing about Kid Gloves being a bit 
different, then, or this review's 
going binwards faster than a 15- 
year-old kiwi fruit. 

OK, then - Kid Gloves is a bit 
different. The dear, sweet infant of 
the title chucks weapons at the 
nasties, which never used to hap- 
pen in The Good Old Days, when 
Men were Men, and 8-bits were 
viable. 

The aforementioned Minor with 
the Mitts must be a member of the 
Chelsea Young Firm, for the 
weapons of choice are coins. These 
bouncing bawbees can be used to 
decimalise, er, decimate the 
smaller enemies, but are rather 
short change on the bigger beasties. 

What you need to do is collect 
the cash that lies about and spend 



it in one of the shops, which are 
rather improbably found half way 
up trees, and also well into pre-his- 
tory. 

Hang on! The plot. What of it? 
Well, it would seem that Kid 
Gloves has borrowed his uncle's 
boxing gloves and has found him- 
self transported back several mil- 
lion years. He's got to get back to 
the present via some fairly zany 
bits of history, such as the Ice Age 
(cold), and The West Coast circa 
'67 (mellow). And if Kid isn't home 
before tea, well... 

Kid Gloves has tried to be far too 
clever for its own good. The graph- 
ics are, on the whole, quite neatly 
done, and have a smooth, cartoon 
feel to them. 

The downside of this is that the 
border required around a sprite to 
stop it looking blocky is virtually 



invisible. Thus you walk into 
sprites before you realise it. Either 
that, or (perish the thought!) the 
author has used a software sprite 
routine and hasn't done it too well. 

The game sports some of the 
clearest samples ever heard. Apart 
from the samples, the-in game 
effects are the bare minimum 
required, and the tune is very 
Whittaker - very good, but very 
similar to every other Whittaker 
you've ever heard. 

The gameplay has all the signs 
of a classic platform game; infuriat- 
ing until you learn how and then 
annoying when you have to repeat 
the correct sequence for a screen 
you know. Age certainly hasn't 
wearied this genre - it must have 
been something else. 

I'm about to start ranting inco- 
herently now, so those with weak 



Kid Gloves 

£24.99 

Milenniam 



Sound 
Graphics 



mi;. 



Gameplay | 

Value LlliiJ^m 



Overall - 78% 



stomachs can leave. Kid Gloves is a 
UK product written by Timothy "I, 
Ball" Closs. 

Never has the UK been the US. 
Our PAL video standard is high 
quality, unlike the US's NTSC, 
which is not. We can manage 256 
screen lines where the NTSC sys- 
tem can only manage 200. So why 
does Kid Gloves go for the smaller 
screen? 

Is the Rom Kernel Manual of Mr 
Closs missing a page or are we get- 
ting a clone of a game for a lesser 
machine? 

Stewart C. Russell 




AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 57 



■ I 



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■ MIM.IIIITTT 



58 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



I 



Jeff Walker presents, 



I 




WORDSEEKER is a game 
played on a 20 x 20 grid of 
letters, based on the wordsearch 
games found in puzzle magazines. 

The object is to find words 
which are hidden in the grid from 
a given list of 15. Each word from 
the list can be found written either 
forwards, backwards, upwards, 
downwards or in any of the four 
diagonal directions. 

The game is mouse controlled. 
Once you have discovered a word, 
use the mouse to move the red cur- 
sor on to the first letter of the word 
and click on it. 

The cursor will now highlight 
one of the words in the list on the 
right-hand side of the screen. Use 
the mouse to move the cursor to 
the word you have found and click 
on it. If correct, the word will he 
struck off the list and your score 
will be updated. 

Pressing Help on the keyboard 
will display where each word is 
hidden, one at a time, but the score 
will not be updated. You can quit 
the game at any time by pressing 
the Escape key. 



Use Textw to alter the word list. 
Remember to use capitals and 
to keep your words between 3 
and IS characters long 



WordSeeker 




Creating your 
own puzzles 

YOU can create your own words 
fur the game by editing the 
words.txt file. Use Eel, Textra, 
MicroEmacs... anything that cre- 
ates a plain Ascii file. 

There must be at leas I 15 
words in the file (more are OK. 
luil not less) and yon must not 
use numbers, only alphabetic 
characters. Each word should 
contain between 3 and 15 char- 
acters inclusive. WordSeeker 
will report anv illegal words in 
Ibelist, 



Each puzzle is 

different, even 

using the same 

word list 



tOB u 
>S BE H M 

JP S J U D 

VLE5BG 

' INXMR 

! WU J S L 

IEJFUM 

:SZJtil)ABOLaBILftDUH 

i'AHIi ITUELTTOBEULBhT 



WORDSEEKER was sent to us by 
Tim Williams of Pontypandy in 
South Wales. It was written in 
Lattice C (v5.0) on a 1 meg 
Amiga with second floppy drive. 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 59 




YOU have been assigned the 
demanding task of cleaning 
your sysop's hard drive from 
viruses. These nasty creatures have 
infected all sectors, and you have 
to wipe them off, sector by sector. 

To eliminate a virus you kick a 
disc at it. But beware, the viruses 
may also kill you. It is important 
that you are fast and kill them all 
before they start to destroy your 
3. Sin discs. 

There are 50 sectors, and on 
each the speed will increase. On 
the higher sectors the viruses are 
smarter and will start to hunt you. 

Each virus has its own charac- 
teristic behaviour. The magnet is 
the most dangerous one - it will 
follow you everywhere and is 
almost impossible to hide from on 
the higher levels. 

The mouse is very mobile, good 
at turning around corners very 
quickly. The photo-diode (among 
other interesting features) is good 
at attacking you from behind. 

The joystick was created by an 
ugly hacker who liked to play 
games too much and didn't spend 
much time fixing his virus. It is 
therefore quite harmless, but it may 
trap you if you are not careful. 

The more viruses you kill with 
one single disc, the more points 
you get, and by pushing the 5.25in 
discs together you will earn an 
extra 20 points. The surprise bonus 
(?) will earn you 0-20 points. When 
you change levels you get one 
point per five non-destroyed discs. 

After double clicking its icon, 
Svs will show you a list of four 



Up - numeric pad 8 

Right -numeric pad 6 

Down - numeric pad 2 

Left - numeric pad 4 

Stop -numeric pad 5 

Kick - spacebar 

§ Or use a joystick in port two. 

• Fl will make you go continu- 
ously without stopping all the 
time. 

9 F2 will stop you after even' step. 

• Ffi turns the music on, 

• F7 turns the music off. 

• F10 should only be used by 
experienced players. It will allow 
you to start on level 10, where 
life becomes harder. Your score 
will be cleared, and you will 
have three lives again. 

§ When you have lost a life, 
press Kick to continue. 



SYS is copyright ©1989 Anders 
Bjerin and was written as an exer- 
cise in programming the Amiga. It 
took him about seven weeks to 
finish, and another week to debug 
and check. If you find any bugs or 
you have suggestions for the next 
version, please write to Anders at: 
Tulevdagen 22, 181 41 Lidingo, 
Sweden. 

You may copy this program 
freely, but may not exchange it for 
money without written permis- 
sion from the author. Nor may 
any part of this program be 
altered or used within another 
program. 



options - Play, Info, Set-up and 
Quit. 

If you chose the Play option you 
will be asked to enter your name 
(three letters). You can correct 
what yon have typed in by pressing 
the backspace key. 

To clear everything, point at the 
Clear option and press the left 
mouse button. Press Return or click 
the OK option when you have fin- 
ished. 

The program will now start. 
Remember to move the mouse to 
the left side of the screen, other- 
wise the program will be in pause 
mode. 

The Info option presents you 
with another menu with five 
options which give a brief descrip- 
tion of the game. The Cancel 
option will bring you back to the 
main menu. 

With the Set-up option you can 
change the default keys, You will 
be asked to define the keys for up, 
right, down, left, stop and kick. If 
you want to cancel this task, click 
Cancel. The Default option will 
change the definition of the keys 
back to their default values. 

To pause the game, move the 
mouse to the right-hand side of the 
screen. When you want to con- 
tinue, move the mouse back to the 
left- hand side. 



SYS will look in the current 
directory for all the files when 
you start the program. 

If il can'l find 
SYSJiighScore.dal it will try to 
create a new high score table. 

If the disc is write protected, 
SYS will ask you to un-protect it. 
If you do not want the program to 
create a new high score table, 
click Cancel in the system 
requester, otherwise write enable 
the disc and click Retry. 

The same procedure will be 



repeated when you quit Ihe pro- 
gram and SYS tries to update the 
high score table. 

If SYS can't find any or all of 
the seven sound files when the 
program loads, it will continue to 
load the other files and will not 
use that sound or those sounds. 

If you don't like the sound 
effects, erase the SY$_Sound1t? 
files and SYS will no) allocate 
any space for them. Very useful if 
you don't have much ram and 
want to multi-task. 



I \ the Chaos drawer you'll 
find three of the four listings 
featured in this month's article, 
Whose life is it anyway?, each 
compiled with HiSnft Basic 
Compiler. 

Listing II, The Logistic 



equation, is not on the disc 
because HiSoft Basic Compiler 
seems to have a problem with the 
SOUND command; it appears not 
to work correctly. 

As luck would have it, that 
particular program is not depen- 
dant on speed. Besides, typing it 
in to Amiga Basic will be good 
practice for you. 

See the article on page 66 for 
instructions on how to use these 



60 AMIGA COMPUTING /line 1990 








MEGAWB makes it possible 
to increase your Workbench 
screen to up to almost 6.5 times its 
normal non-interlaced size. 

The windowing problems you 
may have had with programs like 
TurboBackup, KwikBackUp, 
AudioMaster and so on, are now 
ail in the past because you can eas- 
ily drag their windows away or use 
the Workbench area around them. 

To be able to use the whole 
mega-workbench screen, the bit 
you see scrolls every time you 
move the mouse. 

Actually, there are two different 
methods to scroll the workbench 
screen. The method described 
above is called proportional 
scrolling. If you don't select this 
mode, the workbench scrolls 
whenever the pointer hits the edge 
of the screen. 

You can start MegaWB by dou- 
ble clicking its icon or by typing its 
name into vour CLI window. 



Provided you've got the memory, MegnWfl is the perfect antidote to a cluttered Workbench screen 



Usage: MegaWB [P] 
[WIDTH HEIGHT] 




The P option selects proportional 
mode: WIDTH and HEIGHT specify 
the size your workbench should 
have. 

For example, MegaWB P 800 
400 will create a proportional 
mode mega-workbench measuring 
800 x 400 pixels. 

If you run MegaWB without 
specifying the size, it'll create a 
1024 x 512 pixel workbench. 



If you start MegaWB by clicking 
its icon, it will read its parameters 
from the icon's tool types. The tool 
types WIDTH and HEIGHT specify 
the workbench's size. 

If you set PROP as the FLAGS 
tool type, your workbench will 
scroll proportionally to your mouse 
movements. On the cover disc the 
tool types are set to: FLAGS=PROP, 
WIDTH=1024, HEIGHT=512. 

The workbench's width and 
height should not be set higher 







Known bugs 



have any 

Left-Amtga- 

instead. 

• Some programs are not writ- 
ten to run on a very large 
Workbench so they gel a bit con- 
fused if vou make their windows 



;er than the size 
workbench sc 

It is sometimes possible to 
drag a window one pixel over 
the workbench screen's right- 
hand border, This trashes the 
display a bit but doesn't cause 
any serious problems. 



than 1024 because that's the maxi- 
mum size bitmap the blitter can 
handle. 

If your workbench is too large you 
may accidentally make a window 
higher or wider than 1024 pixels. 
This causes strange things to happen. 

If you start MegaWB from within 
your startup-sequence before you 
execute LoadWB - ran megmvb 800 
400 for example - the workbench 
window will be as big as your mega- 
workbench and the disc icons will 
appear at the very right-hand border 
of your MegaWB screen. 

To get back your ancient work- 
bench, run or click on MegaWB 
once again. But first you should 
reduce all your windows in size 
and move them to the upper left- 
hand corner of the mega-work- 
bench, otherwise MegaWB won't 
quit 

If there isn't enough chip mem- 
ory available to allocate the origi- 
nal workbench's bitmap, MegaWB 
won't quit or will open a single bit- 
plane workbench. 



MEGAWB becomes even more 
useful when you've installed 
Matt Dillon's popular DMouse 
program (Fish Disks 145, 160, 
168), allowing you to scroll 
through your mega-workbench 
with an accelerated mouse 
pointer. 

To use DMouse together with 
MegaWB you have to set 
DMouse's input handler priority 
to a value higher than MegaWB's 
-to at least 52. 

It's very useful to have a 
memory extension of more than 
one meg because a 1024 x 1024 
pixel workbench eats 256k. 



MEGAWB is public domain and 
as such is freely distributable. 
However the program remains 
copyright ©198B Fridtjof Siebert, 
Bug reports and ideas to him at: 
Nobileweg 67, 7000 Stuttgart 40, 
West Germany. 




AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 61 




CUSTREQ, short for Custom 
Requester, is a glorified Ask 
command For your startup- 
sequence. I've used it this month to 
ask for confirmation of your selec- 
tion in the StartUp requester. Take 
a look at s:startup.l and s:sfartup..? 
to see how I've done it. 

The program is best placed in 
your C: directory. It has a very long 
command line, requiring four com- 
pulsory parameters, plus another 
four optional ones. 

This will almost certainly mean 
you'll need a word processor or 



Fed up mth Y/N prompts in your scripts? So 
use CustBeq and have proper requesters 

text editor that scrolls beyond col- 
umn 80 to easily create or edit a 
startup-sequence. Ed will do the 
job if you have nothing else. See 
the usage box for the command 
line syntax. 

All strings must be in quotes if 
they contain spaces. To make the 



"text" string more than one line 
long, use a ! (ShiftA) character to 
specify the end of a line. 

If a default of 1 is given, the 
requester will try to appear with 
the positive (yes choice) gadget 
under the mouse. If a default of is 
given it will appear with the nega- 



CUSTREQ is used in the follow- 
ing manner, assuming a continu- 
ous line: 

CustReq "hailtcxt" "text" "pos" 
u neg" |-d default] |-t timeout] 1-x 
xpos] ]-y ypos] 

hailtext - the title text of the 
custom requester. 

text - the main text of the cus- 
tom requester. 

pos - the positive option of the 
custom requester. 



Usage 



neg- the negative option of the 
custom requester. 

default - the optional default 
value, either 1 (yes) or (no). 

timeout - the optional timeout 
value in seconds. 

xpos - the optional x position of 
the window. 

ypos - the optional y position of 
the window. 






Example 



: : 

It SSK 



CUSTREQ is not public domain, 
but may be distributed freely. It 
is copyright ©1990 Jonathan 
Potter. Bug reports and ideas to 
him at: P.O. Box 289, Goodwood, 
SA 5034, Australia. 



tive (no choice) gadget under the 
mouse. 

The -x and -y flags override this 
function. Use -x -2 to force the 
requester to appear with the posi- 
tive gadget under the mouse. Use 
-x - 3 to make it appear with the 
negative gadget under tie mouse. 
Use -x -4 to make it appear in the 
centre of the screen. 

If a timeout value is given the 
requester will timeout and return 
the default value (1 or 0) after the 
specified time. 

If the positive option is chosen a 
return code of 5 (wain) is gener- 
ated, otherwise is generated. 

The Y key has the same effect as 
the positive gadget and the N key 
has the same' effect as the negative 
gadget. You can also press the key 
corresponding to the first letter of 
the text in the desired gadget. 




it&Jb'l 



delect if 
. your PAL Amiga thinks it is 
an \TS( : one. that is, the infamous 
PA I. reset bug has happened! It's a 
handy little program that should 
live in your C: directory. Call it into 
action as the first line of your 
startup-sequence. It will reset the 
Amiga if it does not hoot in PAL 
mode, hence the name NoPalRcsel. 



NOPALRESET is public domain. 
The source and executable code is 
copyright ©1990 Declan Mc Ardle. 



TARTUP is a similar utility to 
i Dneishe-Start on the 
December 19B9 rover disc. It does 
the same job, liul in a more user- 
friendly and graphically pleasing 
way. 

It allows the use of different 
batch lilcs so you can have the 
choice of custom startups for dif- 
ferent situations. I've used it this 
month to '_; i \ i ; you three choices, 
although you can have up to 10 if 
you like. My startup-sequence 
looks something like this: 



els 

winsize011640 245 
run >nii: c:startup 99 ; 
;0:Load Workbench 
;l:PlaySYS 
;2:PlayWordSeeker 



Actually, the path to the Startup 
program an the cover disc is dif- 
n above, hut I've 



Tli i 



mm 



adjusted it to i::sturlup because 
that is where you should put the 
startup program - in your C: direc- 
tory. The !l!) is the timeout value, 
set it to between 5 and 99. If 
Startup does time out (because the 
user sal staring at the screen 
instead of clicking a gadget) then 
the first hatch file will be executed, 
in other words s:Startup.(l. 

From this you can probably 
work out that clicking on choice 1 
executes ,s:Starlup.l, clicking on 
choice 2 executes s:Starlup.2, and 
so on up to s:Slarlup,9, 

By the way, I found that if I use 
more than two lines in a startup- 



sequence before the Startup com- 
mand, strange things happen. 
Like massive negative numbers in 
the timer box. Erk. The second 
parameter, the 3, tells Startup 
how many menu items there arc. 
'['here's a third, optional, parame- 
ter that I didn't use. 

The full documentation is on 
the cover disc in the Startup 
drawer. Please read it a few limns 
and experiment a hit before gel- 
ting angry because you can't get it 
to work. If all else fails, you can 
always edit the startup files 1 
used in the S: directory or the 
cover disc. 



62 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




S drawer will be a regu- 

. Jiii- feature on the disc from 
now on and will contain the main 
source listings from the The Code 
Clinic articles. 

Double click the icons to read 
the listings. They are all saved in 
pure Ascii format, so you can 
load them straight into your 
favourite program editors. 

Listing 1 is example machine 
code source to display five bit- 
planes, Listing II is additional 
source to dispose of on-screen 
garbage, Listing III is AJ's fortune 
cookie program in C, and Listing 
V is Michael Bassett's small piece 
of code that releases ram grabbed 
by the GVP hard drive. 

See The Code Clinic on page 
29 for more details. 



HERE we go with another 
MusicBox upgrade. Since 
vl.4 there have been a fair number 
of changes, the two most impor- 
tant being compatibility with files 
compressed with PowerPacker 
(October 1989 cover disc) and a 
change in the number of songs 
MusicBox can handle. 

The biggest song selection num- 
ber has been increased from 9 to 
99. So it is now possible for 
MusicBox to choose from 100 dif- 
ferent songs. 

The SoundFX files that 
MusicBox plays may now be com- 
pressed using Nico Francois' 
PowerPacker in Data File mode. 
This feature is provided thanks to 
Nico's publication of the PPData 
source code. 

The song file on this month's 
disc has been compressed using 
this method. Remember, while 



MusicBox 1.8 



compressed songs may include the 
SoundFX executable header, they 
must be crunched using Data File 
mode. 

The compression technique used 
by PowerPacker usually results in a 
20 to 40 per cent reduction in file 
size. This permits a larger number 
of song files to be included on a 
given media. 

But there is a price to pay. 
Decompression takes time - about 
one second per 50,000 bytes. If you 
can wait a second or so between 
songs, this is the way to go, espe- 
cially if you are running from 
floppy disc. 

If you're new to MusicBox and 
want to know more about it, double 



click on the MusicBox.DOC icon in 
the MusicBox drawer. 

This month's tune is a brilliant 
rendition of two intermingled space 
fantasy themes. The first is a well 
known march as you have never 
heard it before. The second 1 seem 
to recognise as the theme from an 
epic film. Anvone know its proper 
title? 



MUSICBOX is freeware but 
remains copyright ©1989-90 
Peter L. Dunlap. This program 
distributed courtesy of CMOS 
BBS (0101- 303-322-4078). 



glLi sting oi riu<.3 c6ok. DOC :■ :;<■■ 



MusicBox VI. 8 Copyright 1998 by Peter L. Dunlap 
■Distributed courtesy of CMOS BBS (383)322-4878 



Remission is granted for non-c< 
files renain intact. 

A snail nusic player progran, tl 
for Husic output. Be sure to use 1 
is in stereo* 

The "MusicBox" progran nay be w 
"Double-Click" the "MusicBox" icoi 
"MusicBox" for CLI usage. Upon sfc 
window on the Workbench screen. I) 
gadgets and status infornation. I< 
I gadget. 



fHUSJCBOX JifflHitl 



liil 

MusicBox 



[MusicBox Vl.sBl 



EnpireStrikesBack 



tng files 
e nusic 



MusicBox.DOC 



'., Sinply 

ype 

snail 

il 

"Close" 



The Middle left portion of the 'S Wisicbux — winnow is a — mrcrJP gadget. 
Use this gadget to switch between "Sequence", "Randon", and "Repeat" 
nodes. The mddle right portion of the window is a "Select" gadget. Use 
this gadget to select the next song or replay current song in repeat 
node. 

White the window is active, the function keys Fl - F18 can be used to 
select songs identified as "Son«B8" - "SongB9' <F1 key selects "Songf"' 
F18 key select "Song89"). The "5" key will "Select" the next song, the 
D key will toggle the play "Mode" and the "ESC" key will terminate 
progran operation. 

Next Page I Prev Page I Next Line I Prev Line I Refresh I Print File I Exit PPMore H 



Usien to it and 
read about it at 
the same time - 
isn't multi-tasking 
wonderful? 



I 



r 



8: Load Workbench 



i:Play SYS 



2: PI ay HordSeeker 



*» A D.„ 



Cancel 



STARTUP was written by 
Weston Fryatt and Paul Davis. 
It is "ourware" meaning that 
they wrote it and if you find it 
useful then any small donation 
would be greatly appreciated 
and would help along the fur- 
ther development of Amiga 
utilities. It is public domain 
and copyright © Acropolis 
Development. 

Although Startup is a public 
domain utility you may not sell 
or charge any money for the use 
of it, and the authors ask that if 
you distribute it you leave all 
the notices and docs intact. 

Bug reports and shareware 
donations to: Acropolis 
Development, P.O. Box 81134, 
Bakersheld, CA 93380, USA. 



Clicking on the cuuntdonn gadget will reset Startup to the value specified in the command line 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 63 



It d ck Tibs Huus§ 



HOWIE DAV1ES is 17 and 
unemployed. But does he let 
it get him down? Sure he does, ! 
mean, with eight grades and two 
highers, plus certificates in bass 
guitar and keyboard, you'd think, 
that someone in Edinburgh would 
offer him a job. 

As well as guitar and piano, 
Howie plays the trombone, com- 
poses music, likes Turkey Kievs for 
tea and loves exclamation marks! 
(That one was just for you, Howie.) 




This is serious talent going to 
waste. 

You don't believe me? Well rum up 
the volume knob, double click on 
Rock The House in the Reader 
Contributions drawer, pin back your 
ears and let the sounds flow over you. 



• Are you a budding musician 
looking for fame and fortune? If so, 
perhaps the Amiga Computing 
cover disc can give you a little 
push up the ladder. Original stuff 
only, please, preferably in self-con- 
tained modules. 



P U T I 



Rock The House composer 
Howie Davies 






OfSUPBHB 



N Q 



SOFTWARE 







Disc 
problems? 



SUBSCRIBERS 

If you subscribe to Amiga 
Computing and your disc has got 
damaged in the post, please 
relum il to: 

Amino Cover Disc, Database 
Direct, FREEPOST, Ellesmere 
Port, South Wirral, 165 3EB. 

Yon will be sent a replacement 
with our compliments. Please 
allow 28 davs for deliv 



HE worst thing about Ed is 
J. having to remember all those 
keypresses. Escape this, Escape 
that... it drives me potty. The only 
Ed commands I know and can 
remember are Esc-D to delete the 
line the cursor is on and Esc-X to 
save and exit. 

Nevertheless, because it uses 
the workbench screen, because it 
loads quickly and because it 
doesn't take up much ram, there 
are limes when I'd much rather 
use Ed than a full-blooded word 
processor - usually for writing a 
quick script file or altering my 
startup sequence. 

If only Ed had an easy user- 
interface. If only I could mark 
blocks by pointing at the screen 
and using the mouse to drag a big 
orange box over the bits I want to 
cut and paste. If only it gave me a 
requester when I wanted to save 
my file under a different name. If 
only it would let me open and 
swap between multiple files. If 
onlv... 

Then I found Textrc. This little 
gem must be the easiest to use text 

til AMIGA COMPUTING fan,? l!)90 



editor I have ever come across. It 
doesn't do anything complicated - 
it can't talk to a printer, for 
instance, and it can't handle lines 
of text that are wider than the 
screen - but il does everything a 
text editor should do, quickly and 
efficiently. 

I don't have to tell you how to 
use it. My guess is you won't even 
need to read the doc file. 

In its crunched format, Tcxtra is 
only about 10k larger than Ed, so 
you should easily be able to delete 
Ed from your C: directory and 
save Textra in its place. 

Cunning Amigans will rename 
Textra as Ed to save typing and to 
enable Textra to interface with any- 
other programs that invoke Ed. 
Saves running round changing all 
the various config files you may 
have from C:Ed to CTextra. 

One thing I've noticed is that 
Textra is not loo hot on error mes- 
sages. For instance, if you try lo save 
a file to a write protected disc, 
Textra will refuse to save it. but 
won'l tell you why. Ah well, can't 
have everything I suppose. 



Printing out the doc file 



WHEN you double click on the 
Textra.DOC file it will be dis- 
played by the file reader, PPMore. 
Should you want a hardcopy of 
this documentation, switch your 
printer on-line and click on the 
Print File gadget at bottom right. 

However, before attempting to 
obtain a hardcopy you should 
copy the correct printer driver for 



your printer into CD008:devs/print- 
ers, use Preferences to set a system- 
configuration file to load this driver 
and copy that system-configuration 
into CD008:devs. You should, of 
course, be working with a copy of 
the cover disc, not the original. 

The cover disc has the 
EpsonX[CBM_MPS-1250] printer 
driver in devs/printers, and it is this 



TEXTRA by Mike Haas, lB-Feb-98 



I emm : THE-COM-CL miZ/l i s i i fig- 



* Exanple listing to set-up. am 



* Put code and data in CHIP ME1 



|c:c-set:Ti«;-coM;-aiN3:c. 



* Additional listing to < 

* of on-screen garbage c: 

* sprites. 



section fiveplaneprog,code_c 

* Define the registers used 

OpenLib equ -552 
CloseLib equ -414 
diustrt equ S8e 
diwstop equ $98 



dew SPRBPTH,S3,! 
dew SPR1PTH,$3,< 
dew SPR2PTH,$3,i 
dew SPR3PTH,$3,i 
dew SPR4PTH,$3,i 
dew SPR5PTH,S3,! 
dew SPR6PTH.S3. 
CD888:THE-C0T>E-CLINIC/Listins-V 



* Code to release Ran taken by GVF.h< 



bplconl equ $182 
bpllpth equ $e8 
bpllptl equ 5e2 
bpl2ptli equ $e4 
bpl2ptl equ Se6 
bpl3pth equ $e8 
bpl3ptl equ Sea 
bpl4ptb equ Sec 



execbase 

superstate 

resetvec 



nove, 1 

jsr 

jsr 



equ 4 
equ -158 
equ $fc88d2 

execbase, a6 

superstate(afi) 

resetvec 




SUBSCRIBERS 



If you bought your magazine in a 
shop and when you got home 
you found your disc was dam- 
aged, please return il, within two 
months of the oil-sale date of the 
magazine, to: 

Amiga Cover Disc, Stanley 
Precision, Unit F, Cavendish 
Courtyard, Sallow Road, 
Welidon North Industrial Estate, 
Corby, Northants, NN17 1/X. 

You will be sent a new disc 
with our compliments. Please 
allow 28 davs for delivery. 



driver which the Amiga will use 
by default, assuming you hooted 
from the cover disc, when you 
click on the Print File gadget in 
PPMore. It should work for most 
Epson compatible printers. 



TEXTRA is freeware. It was 
written in JForth Professional 
v2.0 and is copyright ©1989- 
90 Mike Haas. 




.PTL,$0 
!PIL,$0 
IPTL,$B 
tPTL,$0 
iPTL,$8 
»PTL,$0 



Multiple 
files and 
point-and- 
drag blocks 
arc two 
good 

reasons to 
use Textra 
in place 
ofEd 



WE are always looking for original con- 
tributions for the Amiga Computing 
cover disc. If you think something you 
have written is good enough to share 
with everybody else who reads the maga- 
zine, send it along and we'll have a look. 

If we like what we see, it could earn 
you up to £1,000. 

Please let us know which files, if any, 
your submission needs from the 
Workbench disc. If it is clickable, feel 
free to design an original icon. But don't 
make it too large. And please use the 
standard Workbench colours. 

Bear in mind that a program which 
does not run on a 512k machine would 
have to be exceptionally good to make it 
on to the disc. 

Amiga Computing will buy your work 



on an all rights basis. We are not prepared 
to pay for programs which are already in 
the public domain or have been spread by 
other means. However we are quite pre- 
pared to launch your program into the 
public domain as either freeware or share- 
ware if that is what you wish. 

Please enclose this coupon, or a pho- 
tocopy of it, with your submission. 
Include a file on the disc with full docu- 
mentation, your name, address, phone 
number and a few details about you and 
your kit. A photograph of yourself would 
be nice, but isn't essential. 

Don't forget to duplicate on the disc 
label the program name, your name, 
address and phone number. If you want 
your disc back, enclose a self-addressed, 
stamped envelope. 



Name 

Address . 



.Age years 



pm 



Daytime phone After.. 

Evening phone After... 

Submission name 

Submission size bytes in total 

We will accept submissions up to 500k in total length, including docu- 
mentation. But the shorter your submission, the better chance it stands of 
getting on to the disc. If it is a compiled or assembled program include all 
the source code, but do not count this in the size of the submission. Write 
a brief description of your submission below. If it consists of more than 
one file, describe what each file is for. Attach an extra sheet of paper to 
this form if necessary: 



Sign this declaration: 

The stuff on this disc is mine. I didn't nick it off someone else. It hasn't 
been published before and I haven't submitted it elsewhere because I want 
Amiga Computing to publish it. 

Signed Date 



Post your submission to: Amiga Computing, Cover Disc Submissions, 
Europa House, Adtington Park, Adlington, Macclesfield SK10 4NP 






...whose life is it 






( 



-nj 



• **'%&■ 



*^U, 






■#4 





'« * 



srci.es.aii t^s.i0. 



ri 






/ 



'V 



*7" 



j£_> 






.*7« 



?*■: 



••^-« r- 



w 2 



% f 



FEATURE 



IV A ECHANICAL systems got the 


introducing a random amount of 


with a pocket calculator until 




J. V J- lion's share of mathematical 


"weather" between (no weather) and 


somebody taught him Fortran. Listing 




attention from the 16th century 


1 (occasional big climatic changes) 


II docs it for you in Amiga Basic. 




onwards; it was not until the 


each week. Try various values. Do the 


Verhulst's equation always 




nineteenth century that population 


solutions seem plausible? 


converges to a steady solution, no 




was studied. In 1803 Malthus stated 


This program allows me to clear up 


matter what the value of k is. The 




that population increased 


a common misunderstanding. The 


logistic mapping shows completely 




geometrically as food supply 


solutions with non-zero weather are 


unexpected behaviour. For k less than 




increased linearly. Strangely, he didn't 


random, but they are not chaotic 


2.97 it converges to a steady solution; 




notice the obvious consequence. 


because the input to the equations is 


for k between 2.97 and 3.5 it oscillates 




Thirty-four years later Verhulst 


in itself random. Garbage In. Garbage 


with period 2; for k between 3.5 and 




derived an equation which showed 


Out - chaos is Order In, Randomness 


3.57 it oscillates with the period 




that population increased 


Out. 


doubling to 4, 8. 16, 32 .... 

If k is greater than 3.57 there is no 




geometrically at first, then the rate of 


In the 1970s Feigenbaum 




increase slowed until an equilibrium 
constant population was reached. 
In 1925, the Lotka-Vol terra or prey- 


manipulated Verhulst's equation. 
Stephen Hawking, in A Brief History 
of Time, used one equation, E=mc 2 . 1 


o 

period - chaos! If you don't believe 
me, run the program, put in some 
values, watch and listen; you should 




predator equations, which describe 


am also allowed one equation, and 
here it is - the most important and 
most studied equation in all of chaos, 


at least be convinced that chaos 




the behaviour of two competing 
populations such as foxes and rabbits, 
were derived. Listing I solves these 
equations, giving you the size of the 


doesn't sound very nice. 




sometimes known as the Logistic 


Listing III calculates, slowly and 




Mapping: 


painfully, a bifurcation diagram, 




populations each simulated day. Two 




which shows this period doubling 




parameters need explanation. 


x n+l = * x nl 1 " x n' 


very clearly - k is plotted from left to 




The first is a damping parameter. 




right, and the amplitudes of the 




When it is zero the populations 


The prescription is simple: Take k 


solution for each k from bottom to top. 




oscillate, otherwise they converge to a 


between 2 and 4 and Xq randomly 


Each fork in the path represents a 




value at which both populations will 


between and 1 , put x and k into the 


period doubling. 




remain for ever. 


right-hand side to give x-r , put x^ and 


Try entering 2.8 and 4 to start off 




The second is a weather parameter, 


k in to get X2 and so on until you 


with, then 3,5 and 4 to zoom in on the 




which alters the solutions in a 


generate a series of numbers which 


zone of chaos. You should notice 






remarkably realistic way by 


you can plot out. Feigenbaum did this 


> 






- 


th time', (0,1621-1631,242), 0,1 


ynar(a)=ya[a)+fc2(al*.01 




' Solves the Lotka-Volterra equations 


WHILE NOT endflag 


BEST 




' 


IF day MOD 7=0 THEN 


lv ynewll ,k3 II 




SCREEN 1,640,256,3,2 


weather=l-w*3Iirj 


FOR a=0 TO 1 




WINDOW 1,'Frey versus Predators*, [0 


END IF 


ynew(a)=ya|a)+k3Iat*.02 




,0)-(631,242],0,l 


RungeKutta y() 


NEXT 




RANDOMIZE TIMER :DEFINT a 


WINDOW OUTPUT 1 


lv ynewO.MI) 




DIM SHARED ynevlll 


PSET(50+50*y(0l ,160-25*y 111 ) , 5 


FOR a=0 TO 1 




DIM SHARED klU),k2(l),U(l),k4(l] 


WINDOW OUTPUT 2 


ya(a)=ya(a)+lkl(aH3*Jt2|a)+2*B(a 




PALETTE 0,0,0,0 


FSET(xcoord,8Q-4*y(0l),3 


)+k4(a))/300! 




PALETTE 1,. 33,. 33,. 32 


PSET(xcoord,80-4*y(l)),4 


NEXT 




PALETTE 2,1,1,1 


I? showman then 


END SU3 




PALETTE 3,0,. 47,1 


LOCATE l,60:C0LOR 3 






PAISTTE 4,0,1,. 47 


PRIST USING'Prey ti.H's 


SUB lv(yy(|,deriv[) (STATIC 




PALETTE 5,1,. 4,. 4 


y(8) 


SHARED damp, weather 




MENU 1,0,1, 'Options' 


LOCATE 2, 60: COLOR 4 


deriv(O)=4*yy(O)-damp«yy(O|«yy(0!-2 




MENU 1,1,2," Show numbers " 


PRINT' USING' Predators ft.M'j 


*weather*yy|0)*yy(l) 




MENU 1,2,1," Restart program' 


yd) 


deriv(l)=-3'yy(l) tweataer*yy 1 ) *yy 1 




MENU 1,3,1," Quit program 


LOCATE 3, 60: COLOR 2 


11 




FOR a=2 TO 4:MENU a,0,0,":NBH 


PRINT OSIHG'Day Htit'i 


END SU3 




ON MENU GOSU3 choice :MENU OK 


day 






SHE TIXEF 


END IF 


choice: 




day=0 


day=day+l :xc:wrd=xcoord*-l 


item=MENU(l) 




end£lag=0 


IF xcoord=632 THEN 


if item=l t::e:; 




shovnuir ; =l 


xcoord=0:CLS 


shownum=l-showrjiT. 




xcoord=8 


END IF 


MENU 1,1,1+shownum 




CIS: COLOR 2 


WENT 


ELSEIF item=2 THEN 




INPUT 'Damping parameter? (0-21 " 


WINDOW OUTPUT I:WINDOW CLOSE 2 


end£lag=-l 




,damp 


WEND 


ELSE 




INPUT "Weather parameter? 10-11 ' 




HENO RESET 




,w 


SUE RungeKutta (ya 1 1 (STATIC 


WINDOW CLOSE 1 




..... 


SHARED damp, weather 


WINDOW CLOSE 2 




INPUT "Initial number of prey? (0 


lv ya(),kl() 


s::-.een CLOSE 1 




-5] '.ytflj 


FOR a=0 TO 1 


END 




INPUT "Initial number of predator 


ynev(a)=ya(a)+kl{a)*.01 


END IF 




s? 10-51 ",y(l) 


NEXT 


RETURN 




CLS 


lv ynew(),k2() 






WINDOW 2, 'Population variation wi 


FOR a=0 TO 1 







Listing I 



AMIGA COMPUTING June J 990 67 




THE COMPUTER STORE 




DISKS LOW LOW PRICES and HIGH HIGH QUALITY 
3.5" DSDD ONLY 59p EACH DSDD 3.5" 

Our Disks are Packed in Boxes of 10 and come Complete with Labels. They are of the highest Quality and 

come with a no quibble lifetime warranty. Order any quantity you want 

(we don't mind opening a box) for only 59p each. 

DSDD with label 59p 

DSDD with labels £5.90 

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DSDD with labels £11.80 

DSDD with labels £29.50 

DSDD with labels £59.00 

40 capacity lockable disk box (3.5" disks) £5.99 

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NEW 20 capacity non lockable disk box £2.99 

SPECIAL OFFER 

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Amiga A500 Packages 

Containing 
The Flight of Fantasy Pack, 

A500 Computer, Mouse 

Modulator, Workbench 1 .3, 

Extras 1.3 The Very First 

Tutorial, F29 Retaliator, 

Rainbow Islands, Escape 

from the Planet of the 

Robot Monsters, Deluxe 

Paint II. 

PLUS 
The Computer Store Pack 

Comprising 

Quality 8mm Mouse Pad, 

Ten Black 3.5" with labels, 

Mouse Bracket, Disk box 

to hold 40 Disks 

PLUS 

The Addons Pack 

Consisting of Exolon, 

Zynaps, Slayer, Battle 

Tank, Xybernoid II, 

Megablaster Joystick 

FREE COURIER DELIVERY 

This package is available 
ONLY from 

THE COMPUTER STORE 

ONLY £399 



Commodore HPS1230 Printer £149 

Star LC24-10 Printer £249 

Star LC10 Mono Printer £169 

Star LC10 Colour Printer £229 

All printers come with a free lead 

Cumana 1 Meg 2nd 3.5" Drive £84.95 

Commodore A1 01 3.5" 2nd Drive £84.95 

Ashcom Half Meg + Clock £69.95 

Ashcom Half Meg no Clock £59.95 

Quality Mouse Pad (10" x 8" x .25") £3.99 



Commodore A590 20 Meg Hard Drive £379.00 

A590 + 1 Meg extras Ram fitted £499.00 

A590 + 2 Meg Ram fitted £599.00 



Call in and visit The Computer Store, 

produce this advert and we will give you a 

3.5" disk. Absolutely FREE! 



THE COMPUTER STORE 

Unit 82 In shops, 

2-8 Greenwood Way, 

Chelmsley Wood, 

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Tel: 021 770 0468 



Please make Cheques/PO's Payable to 
THE COMPUTER STORE 



Amiga A500 Packages 

Containing 

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A500 Computer, Mouse 

Modulator, Workbench 1.3, 

Extras 1.3 The Very First 

Tutorial, Balman Ihe Movie, 

The New Zealand Story, 

F/A-18 Interceptor, 

Deluxe Paint li. 

PLUS 

The Computer Store Pack 

Comprising 

Quality 8mm Mouse Pad, 

Ten Black 3.5" with labels, 

Mouse Bracket, Disk box 

to hold 40 Disks 

PLUS 

The Addons Pack 

Consisting of Exolon, 

Zynaps, Slayer, Battle Tank, 

Xybernoid II, Megablaster 

Joystick 

FREE COURIER DELIVERY 

This package is available 
ONLY from 

THE COMPUTER STORE 

ONLY £399 



68 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



FEATURE 



islands of order appearing as dark 
bands with only a few points 
contained in the great sea of chaos. 
This is no accident. It has been 
explained, although the explanation is 
far too complex to go into here. 

Call k n the value of k at which the 
nth period doubling occurs. For 
example, kg is roughly 2.97 and k-^ is 
about 3,5. Form the ratio (k n+ ^ - 
k n )/(k n+2 - k n+1 ) = 9. As n gets bigger 
and bigger, 3 approaches a constant 
4.6692016, to seven decimal places. 

To Feigenbaum's - and everybody 
else's - amazement, this number is 
always the same, it doesn't matter 
what sort of function is on the right- 
hand side of the above equation. So 
Feigenbaum's Constant, as it was 
quickly christened, is universal - like 
n, e and friends - which means it 
should be possible to find il by 
experiment, a stunning surprise. 

It has been found, to enough 
accuracy to confirm the theory, as a 
result of a whole host of experiments 
in different fields of physics like fluid 
effects in helium at low temperatures, 
laser feedback (feeding part of the 
output hack into the input), electron]! 
circuits and computer simulations of 
particle accelerators and 
superconductors. 



Order inside chaos 



EVEN with the simplest equation the 
region of chaos in a bifurcation 
diagram has an intricate structure. 
First the bifurcations produce periods 
of 2, 4, 8, 16.... then chaos begins, with 
no regular periods. 

But as the system is driven harder 
windows appear with odd periods. A 
stable period 3 appears and then the 
period doubling begins again with 6, 
12, 24.... The structure is infinitely 
deep. When portions are magnified 
they turn out to resemble the whole 
diagram. 



i 




If you can, build the circuit diagram 
shown on the next page, then scrounge 
an oscilloscope and a signal generator. 
Turn up the voltage, watch the trace 
breaking into 2, 4, 8.,., parts, and note 
down the voltages at which the period 
doublings occur; can you estimate 3?. 

WHERE do the Mandelbrot set 
and all the pretty fractal 
pictures come in? Although certain 
fractal operations can be carried out 
on chaotic systems, the results are not 
very illuminating. Fractals appear to 
be of limited use, some scientists even 
argue that they are no use at all and 
that any research on them is wasted. 





' 


IF xcoord=8 THEN 




' Solves the logistic equation 


PRESET (xcoord.ycoord) 
ELSE 




SCREEN 1,640,256,3,2 


LINE- Ixcoord.ycoordl , 1 




WINDOW 1,'The Logistic Equation*, (0 


Litis(xcoord-2,ycoord-ll-STEP( 




,0)-(631,242), 0,1 


4, 2|, colour, bf 




RANDOHIZE TIMER 


f SET ( xcoord, ycoord} , colour 




PALETTE 0,0,0,0 


colour=7-colour 




PALETTE 1,. 33,. 33,. 33 


END I? 




PALETTE 2,1,1,1 


xcoord=xcoordt8 




PALETTE 3,1,1,0 


IF xcoord=632 THEN 




PALETTE 4,1,0,0 


CLS 




MENU 1,0,1, 'Options" 


print USIKG'Parameter l.mti 




menu 1,1,1, "Restart program" 


*;k 




MENU 1,2,1, "Quit program " 


xcoord=8 




FOR a=2 TO 4: MENU a, 0,0, '" :NEXT 


END IF 




OK HEJfO GG30B chaice:MENU OH 


:■;::;: 




DEFIHT a,c,x,y 


v.'z::: 




DIM picchlBI 






FOR a=0 TO 8:READ pitch|8-a) :l 


choice: 




;•:-:::£ :::■=} 


i: HENU(1|=1 THEN 




CLE: COLOR 2 


end:lag=-l 




INPUT " Parameter k? 10-4) ",k 


ELSE 




endflag=0 


MENU RESET 




xcoord=8 


WINDOW CLOSE 1 




colour=3 


SCREEN CLOSE 1 




U=RND 


END 




CLS: PRINT OSISG*k=#.»lH';lt 


END IF 




WHILE NOT endflag 


RETURN 




u=k*u*(l-u| 






tane=8-lNT(u*8+.5) 


DATA 261.63,293.66,329.23,349.23 




ycoord=24fl-224*u 


DATA 392,440,493.88,532.25,581.; 1 




SOUND pitch|tor.el,2,255 




Listing 11 





You must try and forget any ideas that 
fractals and chaos are the same thing. 

Contrastingly, chaos is useful, 
although not quite as eye-catching. It 
has been tried in such diverse fields as 
medicine and economics, with 



' Displays the bifurcation diagram 

SCREEN 1,640,256,2,2 

WINDOW 1, 'Bifurcation Diagra.ii for t 
he Logistic Equation", 10,01-1631, 2421 
,0,1 

RANDOMIZE TIMER 

PALETTE 0,0,0,0 

PALETTE 1,. 33, .33, .33 

PALETTE 2,1,1,1 

PALETTE 3, .66, .66, .66 

FOR a=l TO 4:MENU a, 0,0, "":NEXT 

DEFIiiT b,X 

COLOR 2 

INPUT "Lower value of k? (2-4) \kl 
.■.'•:: 

;.-::,. 

PRINT 'Upper value of k? |";MIDS1ST 
R$lklotrer),2l;"-i) \- 

INPUT ".kupper 

CLS 

stepsise= (kupper-klower) /S28 

FOR k=klower TO kupper STEP stepsii 
e 

LOCATE 1,1 

PRINT USING "Calculating: k = 3.4 
l»';k 

xcoord=xcoord+l 
■.,::;: 

FOR b=l TO 50 
u=k*u*(l-u) 

::e>:t 

FOR b=l TO 200 
" .'<1-U> 
PSET(xcoord,238-228*u),3 
NEXT 
NEXT 

LOCATE 1,1 

PRINT'Press mouse button 
WHILE HOT KOUSE(0):WEND 
MENU RESET 
WINDOW CLOSE 1 
SCREEN CLOSE 1 
END 



Listing III 



AMIGA COMPUTING June toon m 



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70 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



FEATURE 



unoxpected success. Because the 
theory is in its infancy - 13 years 
being scarcely out of the cradle in 
scientific terms - more useful results 
will no doubt turn up. 

Despite what I have said, my final 
program - Listing IV - looks quite 
good. The de Jong mapping is a two- 
dimensional variation on the logistic 
mapping, found by accident by 
somebody playing with an IBM PC. 
Try different values, chosen at 
random, nf the four parameters. 

Can you create spiral galaxies, 
globular clusters and other 
astronomical objects? In spite of 
appearances, as far as anybody knows 
this mapping has not the slightest 
thing to do with physics. 

The moral to be drawn from this 
series on chaos is that you must not 
stop looking over your shoulder and 
worrying when thinking about 
science. 

At the turn of the century even great 
scientists like Lorenz, a founder of 
relativity, and J. J. Thomson, an 
unknowing father of quantum 
mechanics, believed that physics was 
essentially dead and that all there was 
left was clotting i's and crossing t's. 

There then came a great whirlwind 
of relativity, quantum mechanics and, 
after the others had been more or less 
got to grips with, chaos. 

Today it is clear that less is known 
about the world than anyone would 
have dared think a century ago, 
although much progress is being 
made. 



Chaotic PD 

Chaos: On Panorama disc 23B, this 
program lets you play around with 
the Henon mapping, which is 
important in astronomy and 
particle physics. 

GravSim 1.5: On Fish disc 223, this 
program solves the N-body 
problem for N<7. 



Further reading 

Chaos fames Gleick, 1989, published 
by Carousel, £6 in paperback. 
Universality in Chaos Predrag 
Cvitanovic, 1989, published by 
Adam Hilger, £15 in paperback. 
Makers of Mathematics Stuart 
Hollingdale, 1989, published by 
Penguin, 1989, £8 in paperback. 



32 KHz 



L = lOmH 
R 1 =30 
C = 470pF 
R 2 = 20fi 
V = to 1BV 




►■ Y input 



X and Y input 



* 


a3=PHrand 




WEND 




' Explores the de Jong attractor 


i4 = ~::;-r : 
ELSE 




: lir 




SCREEN 1,320,256,4,1 


v;::eok close 2 




choice: 




',■;::::.",'.' i,T:.e :■:■? Jong Attractor", [0 


WINDOW OUTPUT 1 




item=snarou) 




,01-1311,242), 20,1 


OS: COLOR 2 




IF item=l THEM 




DEF FNrand=INT(RND*3»SGN[RND-.5)"10 


INPUT "First parameter A? 


-3 


WINDOW 2, 'Show', (40,40 )- 


[126 


0001/10000 


to 3) ",al 




22,1 




RANDOMIZE TIMER 


INPUT "Second parameter B? 


'3 


WINDOW OUTPUT 2 




DEFINT c,e,i 


to 3) ",=2 




COLOR 14 




PALETTE 0,3,0,0 


INPUT 'Third parameter C? 


-3 


PRTJft USING ' A . = .==:: = " 


;al 


PALETTE 1, .33. .33,-33 


to 3) \a3 




PRINT USING " 3 ♦*.=#**" 


ra2 


PALETTE 2,1,1,1 


INPUT 'Fourth parameter D? 


-3 


r?::;T ■■;::::■ - : ■■-.-■■----■ 


;a3 


FOR a=3 TO 13 


to 3) \a4 




PRINT USING " D »Mtlf 


;a4r 


palette a,(a-3|/U),tU13-a)/10 


END IF 




"I:;:-:;.- ::r.vr. . 




:::::: 


CLE 




END 17 




PALETTE 14,0,1,0 


x=0:y=3 




IF iteL=2 OR iten=3 THEN 




PALETTE 15,0,0,0 


colour=3 




end£lag=item-l 




MENU 1,0,1, 'Options" 


endElag^O 




END I? 




HQjn 1,1,1, 'Show parameters" 


WHILE endflag=0 




IF iteuM THEN 




MENU 1,2,1, "Input start 


xi=Slfi(al'y)-C0S(a2*xl 




menu reset 




MENU 1,3,1, "Random start " 


yl=SIN(a3"x)-COS(a4*y) 




WINDOW CLOSE i 




MENU 1,4,1, "Quit program ■ 


PSET(160+80*xl,128+64«yl),c 


lou 


WINDOW CLOSE 2 




FOR a=2 TO 4:MENU a, 0,0, "*:NEXT 


r 




ECRSEN CLOSE 1 




ON MENU GOSUB choice; MENU ON 


colour=eoiourtl 




END 




WHILE TIMER 


IF oolour=14 THEN 




END IF 




IF endflagol THEN 


colour^ 




RETOHH 




al=FNrand 


END IF 








a2=FNrand 


x=xl:y=yl 






/ 



Listing TV 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 71 




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kuare 



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72 AMIGA COMPUTING /une 1990 




SK MARKETING 

► ► ► COMPUTER SUPPLIES H4 



AMIGA HARDWARE 




AMIGA 500 + 




FREE 




SOFTWARE! 


* 


Amiga 500 + TV Modulator 


* 


Batman tha Movie 


• 


New Zealand Story 


* 


Interceptor 


* 


Deluxe Paint II 


• 


Dust Cover 




and Mouse Mat 




ONLY £375 Inc. VAT! 



AMIGA 500 

Including:- 

Mouse, Workbench, Utilities, Manuals, 

Tutorial, Modulator 

SKM price _ £355 



DOT MATRIX PRIMERS 



StarLCIO £186 

Star LC 10 Colour £213 

Panasonic KX-P 11 24 £305 

Panasonic KX-P 11 80 £190 



A590 20MB Hard Drive ..£374.99 

Vortex 40MB Hard drive £499 

Philips B833 Monitor E2S9.95 

Commodore 10B4S Col. Monitor £259.95 

A601 Ram Expansion/Clock £1 29.95 

Video Digitizer £99.95 

Cumana3.5" Drive £34,95 

MES Hall Meg Ram Expansion £75 



FLIGHT OF FANTASY 

* Amiga 500 + TV Modulator 

* Deluxe Paint II 

* Escape from Robot Monsters 

* F-29 Retaliator 

* Rainbow Islands 

* Dust Cover & Mouse Mat 

ONLY £385 inc VAT 



Amiga B2000 P.O.A. 



CLASS OF THE 90's 

* Amiga 500 + TV Modulator 

* Midi Master Interface 

* Deluxe Paint II 

■k Publishers Choice 

* Maxi Plan 500 

* Superbase Personal 

* DR-T'S Midi Rec. Studio 
■k Amiga Logo 

* BBC Emulator + Mouse Mat 

* 10 Blank Discs + Disc Wallet 

ONLY £539 Inc. VAT! 



CONTROL CENTRE 

nstantiy transform your Amiga 500 into an 
A1000/2000 'look a like' without any modifi- 
calion to the computer. Simply slip the 
'control centre' over the Amiga 500 and by 
reason ot Its colour match and contour 
hugging design it becomes an integral part 
of ine computer itself, 

■ Hides untidy connections at rear of A500 

■ Hokis disk drives, genlocks etc... 

• Easy access to joystick parts 

• Monitor sits aboul A5O0 £54.95 



Advanced Amiga BASIC „ £18.95 

Amiga 3D Graphics Prog BASIC £1 8.45 

Amiga Applications £18.95 

Amiga Assembly Lang Prog £10,80 

Amiga BAS IC Inside & Out £1 8.95 

Amiga C for Beginners £18.45 

Amiga DOS Inside 4 Out £18.45 

Amiga DOS Manual £22.95 

Amiga DOS Quick Reference £13.95 

Amiga DOS Rel Guide £14.95 

Amiga Disk Drives Inside i Out £27.95 

Amiga Gd Graphics Sound Teleco £17.45 

Amiga Handbook , £1 5.95 

Amiga Intuition Bel Manual £22.95 

Amiga Machine Lang Guide £19.95 

Amiga Machine Language £14.95 

Amiga Microsoft Basic Prog Guide £18.45 

Amiga Prog Handbook Vol. 1 £23.95 

Amiga Prog Handbook Vol. 2 £23.96 

Arriga Programmers Guide £16.95 

Amiga Programmers Guide £18.45 

Amiga ROM Kernel Rel Man Exec £22.95 

Amiga ROM Kernel Ret Man Lb £32.95 

Amiga System Programmers Guide ....£32.95 

Amiga Tricks and Tips,,., „.„.„., £14,95 

Amiga for Beginners £12.95 

Becoming an Amiga Ariel £18.45 

Beginners Guide to the Amiga £16.95 

Compute's 1st Book o( Amiga £16.95 

Compute's 2nd Book of Amiga £16.95 

Elementary Amiga BASIC .. £14.95 

Inside Amiga Graphics £16.95 

Inside the Amiga with C 2nd Ed £20.95 

Klckstart Guide to the Arriga £13.95 

Kids » the Arriga £15.95 

More Tips & Tricks for Amiga £1 8.45 

Programmers Guide to the Amiga £23.95 



LEISURE SOFTWARE 



30 Pool 


£15.00 


5m Gear ...... „ „. 


... . £1490 


Advanced 6ki S-ujtir . 


£14.00 


ap.b _ 


£14.00 


A :. mJ Beasl 


.... £1745 


A;. I,*l.! 


£17.45 


Aichipelegos 


.....£16.05 


Armada „__„....., 


£15.00 


Asia* 


.....£15.00 


Aid t Marjc Hammers . 


... £14.00 


Bui _ 


£13.00 


Balance ol Po*ei IMS ... 


£15.00 


Banista - 


-...£13.00 


Bangkok Knights 


£17.05 




£14.00 


Sine Squadron 


£16.00 




. ... £16.50 


Bitletedi 


£1745 




£17.45 


Bee* voley , . - 


-..E17AS 


Beam 


£15*0 


Brvfity Hill Cop 


....£15.00 


tkwc Commando 


...... £18*5 


Blood Money 


..... £15.90 


Btoodnryeri 


£17.45 


Bridge Player 2150 


£17.45 


,": i 


£17.45 


Cepone 


£10*5 




.£15.00 


Cxi* Wtritor 


£17.45 


C'J'pc-.': FooQll „ 


£17.45 


Cftampionslap Gdl 


..... £15.00 


Curiols ol Wrath .„ 


. ... .£16*0 


CleseHO 


£1600 


Oiess Payer 2150 


ft7.45 


C'rojt Games .... 


£13,00 




£17.45 


Continents* artus 


£'6 00 




1-5 90 


Dirljl 


£1745 




£1055 






DeteVu 


£16 95 


DtiVull 


E1SH0 


DemonaTomb 


£17.45 




£14.00 


DMA Warrior 


£1105 


Damirator .... 


£1600 


Daide Dragon II 


... El 7.05 




E21M 


Dm , -". . » • II 


£3105 



Dugon Ninje £16.50 

Dragons Lair - ..£32.95 

Dragons ol Heme ...£1745 

Drakklien £2 1.96 

Dr. Dooms Revenge £15.00 

Dungeon Master £1595 

Dungeon Msslei ErltH £645 

Dynamite Dm £17,45 

Bile.- £15.90 

Eskimo Garnet £17.45 

F16 Corneal Hot S174S 

Faery Tale Adventure £1390 

Fakxxi £18.95 

Falcon Mssion Disks £14 90 

Fasl Lane £14,90 

Fenan Formula 1 £1745 

Ren a sh Freddie £15.90 

FignlrBcmSMi £21,95 

nigM Simulator E36O0 

Focttal Managu 2 Expansion .£1035 

Fun School II under 6 _ £14,95 

Fun 6*orJ 116-6 „. £14 95 

Fun SOiis II S and above ... £14 95 

FuUrt Wars £15 90 

Galaxy Force... £1745 

GNdragcro Domain £H00 

Gezzs'e Super Soccer £15.90 

Gemini Wire) £1390 

Ghostbusarrs II E1690 

Ghoian Ghosts £1690 

Giants _ £2190 

Grand Monster 61am £1390 

Grand Pre droit £17.45 

Gtusfip £1650 

HerdOmen £169(1 

Hawkeye £1300 

Honda RVF £1690 

Hound d Shadow £1690 

Hurl For Hed Odober EIS95 

Indiana Jones Adventure £1795 

Indiana Jones Crusade £1400 

Intarphase £1690 

ft Came F-om The Dessert £24 05 

Iron Tracker £13 90 

Joan of At £999 

Keef the Thief £16 90 

ncxOtl ....£13 90 

KJck Ofl Extra Tana £9 99 

KJngAitur £1745 

Xing Quest 3 Far* ....£24 95 

Kutf- £17,45 



leisure Suit lany £14.90 

Leisure Suit Larry 2 El 9.05 

licence b Kll ...... El 5.90 

tamtam BAC Bally £1 S.90 

Lords ol Ine PJ iting Sun £20.90 

Meohunler E20.9O 

Menac Mansion £1 6.90 

Micro? rcee Soccer El 6.95 

Mleraum 11 ..... £1 7.4S 

MiCdSendel £14.90 

MntGdl EM 90 

MccrwaMr EI7.45 

Heysaiiy ol tie aajmmy El 490 

Neuromancer El 6.90 

Nevermind £11.95 

Nigel Mansell Grind Phi El 6 95 

Nighldown £19.00 

Nortn S South El 6.90 

Onshore Warrior E1650 

Oi Impeitim El 6.90 

Onslaught El 6.90 

Operatcfi rtmcMdl El 745 

OuBends ...CI 100 

Pacmanii EI5.95 

Passing Snot £1 5 90 

Personal MigNnare El 9.90 

Player Manager El 3.90 

Pence Guest £17.45 

Police Quasi || EI7.45 

Populous El 7.45 

Populous rati Disks El 1.90 

Pcvrerdritt E16.90 

Powerdroma El 745 

Precious MeM £17.45 

Premier Collection II £20.90 

Pro Tennis Tour E1 5.90 

Ouarti... £16.00 

Flaincow islands £17.45 

Rainbow Warrloi EI6.90 

Red Heat „,..„.„ CIS.90 

Red Ughriaig £21.95 

Red Slorni Rising £16.90 

Rck Dangerous £15 90 

Risk E1745 

Road Sisters ..£15 90 

ftobococ, , ...£15.95 

Racket Ranger £20.90 

Run ine GaunBel £1 745 

Sargon III Chess _ £1990 

Scape Ghost £11.90 

Shad Mr ol tie bail £24.95 





...£14.90 


Srtrrtil 


...£14.90 


S/wgun 


.,.£1995 


tVxKl nm up Const tucl on 8*1 . £2 1 jDS 


Wtnl Serve* 


....£15.90 


B^iQlV „.. 


...£21.95 


SpwCt Act . ... 


... £32.95 


6pn Oon 1 1 ..... 


...£1745 


S0*ceOumL?_ . 


...£17.45 


S^K«OuHlll{.Mig) .... 


...£20.93 


Speed ?lI ..,„.._..„„__ 


...£1745 






SbrBta ....... ._... .. 


... £13.90 




...E215S 


filar Glider J 


.E15.90 


St*fWinTrilo»„. _. .._ 


...£21.95 


fiUffn 1 nrif 


....£14.90 


StorySoFirVof.K... _ 


....£15.90 


Slrcel Rgfilf i 


.£1745 


Stndtr „ _ 


...£1590 


Sbnt Cir Racer „.. ._. , 


. EI4 90 


6*jp*iHvigl>i 


-ES74S 


Super Scnmtfe b-t-ji" jf .. 


. £'690 


SrLaper Qjinle. 


...£16.90 


SwonJ ol Soflin .............. 


..£1990 


SwDnlt of TwiligM „ _.„ 


. £1790 


Tiki 'cm Out „._..„.. ™_ 


...£14,90 


Tilespin _...„ 


...£2090 


Ttr*Aa»d( „...„ 


....£15.90 


lirgtani _ 


.... £15.90 




....£1395 


Test Owe II „,„„ 


....£2090 


Thril Time Rrtinum 


... £19.95 


iifl Tin oft In Moon 


....£13.90 


Toobin _ 


....£14.00 




...E16JJ0 


Triad 


....£22.95 


TurbaOubui 


... £19,95 


TV &parfc B»kfHul 


....£20.95 


TV tjports FwOmH „ 


....£19.95 






UIDrm4 _ 


....£15.90 


V.IU1, „ .... H ...M 


...£1745 




..£1745 


witertoo „ _„ im .„ 


...El 9.90 


Wn In UMA Ecru 


.... £13.95 




.... £17.45 


WnrtMllttf 


...E20JJ5 




. .£2090 


Ward Wire .„ „.„. 


..£17.45 


Xanon II MicaUM 


....EI7jK 




...El 6.90 


Xybots 


...£17.45 


ZakMcCraken... 


... EI 7 « 


loiliZaro^.^.-..^. 


... £19.90 



LONDON'S LEADING 

DEALER 

■J:MJJe4a!l.llHW!iW,M.l 3 .'JH:M 

9 Oul Of 10 £29.95 

Animaior/lmages £89.95 

Animator £39.95 

Animator 3D £99.95 

Arena Accounts £149.95 

C-Llght £39.95 

Comic Setter £44,95 

Deluxe Paint II £49.95 

Deluxe Paint lit E64.95 

Deluxe Print 2 £39.95 

Deluxe Music Construction £54.95 

Deluxe Productions £99.95 

Deluxe Photolab £54.95 

Deluxe Video £65.95 

Diglpaini III £54.95 

GFA Basic Compiler £39.95 

GFA Basic Interpreter III £39.95 

Hisotl Devpac V2 £42.95 

Hlsofl Lance C £175.95 

Home Accounts ,..,„ £22.95 

Inslanl Music £21.95 

K-Dala £34.95 

K-Gadgel £19.95 

K-Seka £29.95 

K-Spread III £75.00 

K-Texl £14.95 

Kind Words V2 £33.95 

Mailshol Plus £40.95 

Photon Paint 2 £54.95 

Protexl £64.95 

Publishers Choice £74.95 

Superbase Personal _ £54,95 

Superbase Personal II £65.95 

Superpian £69.95 

TV Show £59.95 

Zoetrop(5ln 1 package) £79.95 



LATEST RELEASES 



r»8Attack8ub £17.45 

American Dreams C1745 

Back Tiger £1745 

'SlarJa Warrior .EIS.90 

•Senear £2 1 90 

•SudDklwl £17.45 

•Caste Master -.£1745 

•Chts crarnpim 2175 £20 90 

•Olrwcfluettii —.. £19.90 

•Ccfora*) £15,90 

•Cyotrtsl £14.90 

•Oimocles £16 90 

•Dan Dare III -...£1390 

Datasttrm ....EI4.90 

Dtstunguis 136-99 

•E-Mofjon £17.45 

•F29 ftiWltoi £17.45 

Ful Metal Planet EI74S 

Gold ol the Realm C14D0 

-Hammerfist EIT.45 

•Hoi Rod C1745 

Rypemanla _ £1745 

lfyT»iicti0H ....£17.45 

Inleshlcn.... £1745 

•hienhoe- £17.45 



"Jumping Jackson £11.90 

"Kid Glares ._ £15 90 

'Klex £1490 

•KrigrilsoItieCrystaiicn £1745 

Last Dutchman's Mine E17.45 

•lasl Ninia II £1745 

'Leisure Soil Larry III £2490 

•Lool Palrol ..„ _ .....£1745 

Magnum 4 £21.90 

ManaieslerUld EI745 

•Malris Marauders ...EIS.90 

•MkhnVlkl. ...£21.90 

NeijaSpiiil £1745 

Pjns-Dikar'90 £17.45 

Rota £14.90 

■SimQtrlerratnF.dilw £1145 

•Son* Boom £17.45 

Space Rogue £21 90 

•The Rling Game Show £1590 

•Thame Pail Myslery £16.90 

•Triad III £20.90 

UntouchatHei £1745 

•WOeOut £13.90 

X-Oul £14 90 



SECOND SHOWROOM ACQUIRED 



Fulham Broadway - 
opposite station. District Line 

Rtckmansworth Station - 
5 minutes walk, 
BR and Metropolitan Line 
SKM^ / J c Vj** , '°»o 

ZTstitoi A. 

aba.lV PAHKINO 



e 




24 hour hotline for 
credit card orders 



Ail prices subject la change 
without notice 

All goods subject to availability. 

Titles marked " may not be released 

and will be sent on the day of 

release (subject to availability). 



SALES HOTLINE 
0923 896969 

To order: Please send checjuoPO/Access or Visa delails lo SK Marketing Ltd. 
13 Moneyhill Parade, Uxbridge Road, Rickmansworlh, Hens, WD3 2BE, 

Al prices include VAT and carriage is Irea (UK mainland) 



South London: 

10 Fulham Broadway 
London SW6 1AA 
Tel: 071 381 661S 
Fax: 071 381 0528 



North London: 
13 Moneyhill Parade 
Uxbrkjge Road 
Rickmansworlh 
Herts VVD3 2BE 
Tei; 0923 896969 
Fax: 0923 771058 



PERSONAL CALLERS WELCOME AT 
BOTH SHOWROOMS 

MONDAY-SATURDAY 9.30am - 5.O0pm 



AMIGA COMPUTING {une 1990 73 



NORTH of the Golden Gate 
Bridge, on a steep hilly street 
in Sausalito. there's a brown wood 
shingle house with an old red 
Volkswagen microbus parked under 
the overhang. Sausalito is a very easy 
universe to inhabit. The shrubs and 
trees almost bury the houses in a 
cascade of colour and green. 

Down the street (straight down — it's 
one-in-four everywhere here) the sea 
shines back and, beyond the island of 
Alcatraz, San Francisco and the Bay 
Bridge shimmer in the Californian air. 
No kidding, it really is like that. 
Honest. 

Inside die brown wood shingle 
house there's a quite other reality. Eric 
Gullichsen looks through his 
eyephones into the world he has built. 

"Let's have a look at tliis bit of 
surreal estate", he grins. 

He dives into the square patch 
below, flying into the shapes on the 
chequerboard plane. He has a six- 
degree-of-freedom joystick; press, lift 
or rotate the ball and that's exactly 
what happens, the plane tilts and 
rotates below him. He turns his head 
and he can see where he's looking, in 
three dimensions. 

Cruise up to a column, lift the head 
and look up at the top, look down at 
the base, around it at the other shapes. 



Cyberspace is a 
deeply won derful 
experience, a way to 
escape from the 
humdrum existence 
of real life into an 
alternative reality. 
But can it be 
experienced on an 
Amiga ? Peter 
Ceresole went to 
California to find out 

There's a hut at the other side of the 
space. He flies forwards between the 
columns and enters the hut. There's a 
computer in there, 

"Let's go have a look at the 
machine..." 

Move around to the screen. Dive in. 
No doubt what type of computer it is. 
There's the red and white chequered 
ball from the Boing! demo hovering, 
this time, above a pyramid. Fly up to 
the ball and look down. Inside this 
unreal computer is a slippery world; 
things are only themselves when you 




look straight at them. 
Turn your head and / 
they change. If a ; 
flower blooms in 
the forest, does 
it still bloom if 
no one is there 
to see? Not here 
it doesn't. 

Because this is v 
cyberspace. It 
exists only inside a 
couple of Amiga 
500s. Each powers the "1 
display for one eye, each "^fc 
eye looking through a lens >j 
system at the LCD colour 
display from a Sony Watchman. 
The two Amigas each construct the 
scene from the viewpoint of one eye 
and, looking with both eyes wide open 
through the eyephones, there is a 
perfect illusion of depth. 

Cyberspace has its literature, 
written by William Gibson, in a 
series of three brilliant roller 
coaster rides, Neuromancer, Count 
Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. 
William Gibson's protagonists 
move in the Matrix, the sum of 
all human communication 
where the only reality is data 
constructs. 

The Eastern Seaboard 



The duds 




















i^A 

^l_^L Fusion Authority is 
^* a red pyramid, the 
. Stock Exchange in 
^l^ London is a 

BP^^^^l yellow plain 1 

over which a 
Japanese 
gangster's 
daughter is 
conveyed in a 
blue boat shape 

r'to reduce the 
,' disorientation". 
J^^^ Students rav\ I : 
_^H ^F day's hacked access 
codes for AT&T on the 
side of the data construct of 
the university, arid AT&T sweeps 
through regularly to erase them. 
Totally wonderful stuff. 

When he started, Gibson told me: "1 
had no idea about forseeing the future. I 
was interested in the way we watch 
i television now, how we respond to the 

k availability of information". He started 

■L in 19H2 when, if you fired up DBase 

K. II, you got a dot on screen. That was 

Bl all there was in those days, a dot. 

But now at the very least there's 
Workbench, on a micro whoso 
real price is a quarter of a CP/M 
machine back dien. And 
cyberspace is beginning to exist 
for real, in Club Caribe. 



FEATURE 




CLUB CARIBE is an amazing 
thing. Think about it - an 
interactive real time shared universe 
with several dozen graphic locations. 
The characters move around 
independently but simultaneously, 
communicate by speech bubbles and 
can hug, kiss, steal things from each 
other (and give them back)... even get 
married in the chapel. 

There are 15,000 members and up to 
150 have been logged on at one time. 
So what does it run on? A mainframe? 
Now here's the reallv unbelievable bit 



Eric Gullichsen 
shows off his 
eyephones. Inside 

are two Sonv 
Watchman LCD 
television screens 



- it runs on the C64 and the comms 
are 300 baud, packet switched. S4.80 
an hour right the way across the USA. 

It originated in Palo Alto. 20 miles 
down the San Francisco peninsula 
from Sausalito. Writing the program 
was not trivial. Programmer Randy 
Farmer told me that the graphics are 
all bitmapped and the only sprite is 
the tail that connects a character to its 
speech balloon. 

He said that the whole thing is in 
machine code and that the secret is to 



on 





^wnvMOTmm 




THE POWER BREAKS THROUGH... 

A ' ig^T ■■ 1 : IK KM if* A 




ONLY 

59.99 

POST FREE 

^ >" THE WORLD'S 
MOST POWERFUL 
FREEZER'UTILltY 
CARTRIDGE IS HERE 

JUST LOOK AT THE UNMATCHED RANGE OF FEATURES 

AMIGA ACTION REPLAY SIMPLY PLUGS INTO THE EXPANSION PORT OF YOUR AMIGA 500 AND 
GIVES YOU THE POWER TO FREEZE MOST ANY PROGRAM, THEN YOU CAN:- 



SAVE THE ENTIRE PROGRAM IN MEMORY TO DISK 

Special compacting techniques enable upto 3 programs to 
fit on one disk. Unique FDOS power means that the pro- 
grams reload at upto 4 TIMES FASTER than Amiga Dos - 
even independantly of the cartridge: 

■ UNIQUE INFINITE LIFE/TRAINER MODE 

Allows you to generate more and even infinite lives, 
fuel, ammo etc. Perfect as a trainer mode to get you 
past that "impossible" level. Very easy to use. 

■j SPRITE EDITOR 

The full sprite editor allows you to view/modify the 
whole sprite set including any attached' sprites. 

■j VIRUS DETECTION 

Comprehensive virus detection and removal features to 
protect your software investment. Works with all 
presently known viruses. 



■ SAVE PICTURES AND MUSIC TO DISK 

Pictures and sound samples can be saved to disk. Files 
are IFF format suitable for use with all the major graphic 
and music packages. 

■ SLOW MOTION MODE 

Now you can slow down the action to your own pace. Easily 
adjustable from full speed to 20% speed. Ideal to help you 
through the tricky parts! 

■j RESTART THE PROGRAM 

Simply press a key and the program will continue where 
you left off. 

■; FULL STATUS REPORTING 

At the press of a key now you can view the machine status. 
Including Fast Ram.Chip Ram. Ramdisk.Drive status.etc. 



REEZ 

MORE FEATURE THAN YOU COULD EVER NEED. HERE ARE JUST SOME; 

Full M68000 Assembler/Disassembler Full screen editor ■'. ~? Load /Save block Write string to Memory 

• Jump to specific address © Show Ram as text # Show Frozen picture Play resident sample. 

Show and edit all CPU registers and Blags • Calculator © Help command Full search feature 

> " Unique Cu torn Chip Editor allows you to see and modify all chip registers-even write only registers ^ Notepad 
'.j Disk handling - show actual track. Disk Sync pattern Etc. ® Dynamic Breakpoint handling 
J Show memory as HEX, ASCII. Assernbler.Decimal Copper Assemble/Disassemble. 

REMEMBER AT ALL TIMES YOU ARE INTERROGATING THE PROGRAM IN ITS "FROZEN" STATE WITH 
ALL MEMORY AND REGISTERS INTACT. -INVALUABLE FOR THE DE-BUGGER OR JUST THE INQUISATIVE! 



HOW TO GET YOUR AMIGA ACTION REPLAY... 
TELEPHONE (24 Hrs) - 1 - CREDIT CARD ORD 



WE WILL DESPATCH YOUR ORDER QUICKLY 4 EFFICIENTLY TO ENABLE YOU TO START RECIEVING THE BENEFITS OF YOUR PURCHASE WITHIN DAYS. NOT WEEKS. 

ORDERS NORMALLY DESPATCHED WITHIN 48Hrs. 
ALL CHEQUES/POSTAL ORDERS MADE PAYABLE TO.. 

DATEL ELECTRONICS LTD. 
GOVAN RD., FENTON INDUSTRIAL ESTATE, FENTON, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST4 2RS, ENGLAND 

TECHNICAL/CUSTOMER SERVICE 0762 744324 



FEATURE 



have all the locations, characters and 
bits of action in a local library, held on 
disc. Everyone has the same disc. A 
single byte down the line repositions a 
character anywhere on screen, and on 
every set that's logged on the character 
turns and walks across to the new 
position. Same for all actions. It's an 
elegant demonstration of how little 
you need to transmit. 

But never mind the techniques, it's 
behaviour that shows that this is a real 
alternative universe. The characters 
are real people. The first Club Caribe 
divorce came two weeks after the first 
marriage. 

Randy, who stood up as best man at 
that first wedding, says: "I'm not sure 
the two people wore the sex they said 
they were. People like to manifest 
themselves as women in Club Caribe 
because women get more attention". 

Life in cyberspace could get kind of 
complicated. 

"The next thing is to raise the 
resolution", says Randy, "so that 
people get an even greater sense of 
reality, so they can relate even more 
closeh to Ihe \ irlu.il world". 

There's a Japanese version out now 
which runs on the IBM PC with much 
faster and more detailed graphics. An 
Amiga version would need money and 
time for the programming. But then 
you'd believe that a micro can fly. 

Flying is it. At the Ames research 
lab of Nasa, just another five miles 
down Route 101, they're using half-a- 



millton dollars' worth of hardware to 
build a serious virtual reality. The 
operator wears, not just the eyephones 
but a glove the location of which is 
tracked by the machine. 

As well as the computer-generated 
scenery, the man sees his hand in the 
virtual universe too. He can touch 
things. He gets a tingle back through 
transducers in the fingers of the glove 
when he does. When he grasps 
"objects" he can lift or move them. 

He has the strength because nothing 
weighs anything here, and he can fly 
because he weighs nothing either. The 
operator becomes Superman. 

The universe has 3D pull-down 
menus that the operator can see by 
turning his head and can select by 
"touching". To gain higher speed and 
resolution the images are shaded 
monochrome. The device could be 
used for training and for work in 
remote or hostile places like the inside 
of nuclear reactors or out in space. 



THE gear to do this — the 
computers, the headset, the 
glove, the devices that track the head 
and the hand - costs around half a 
million dollars. Thirty miles back up 
the road in Sausalito, a company 
called Autodesk is using a similar rig 
to do 3D computer aided design, 
running in colour on a big IBM PC. Its 
got the cost down to $300,000. Pay 
with plastic and take it away? Maybe. 



Almost all the code for Autodesk's 
svstem was written by Eric Gullichsen 
and Pat, who live and work in the 
brown wood shingle house on the hill. 

Eric believes that this stuff should 
be hitting the street. But the rig he has 
built costs only 59,000. He's done it by 
using stock hardware whenever he 
can. His universe runs on two A500s 
fitted with 68020s. The virtual 
universes are designed on Sun 
workstations - there's one in the living 
room, one in the back room and a 
Sparc machine in the bedroom. 

While he works in the bedroom, Pat 
programs in the living room. They're 
developing a machine-independent 
description language for the objects — 
as the hardware gets better the 
software will operate to the limits of 
the available resolution. 

The drawing programs are wTitten in 
Aztec Mix-C on the Suns, which are all 
Ethernetted, and compiled on an Amiga. 
The Amigas have proprietary 32-bit 
memory to speed up the redrawing of 
the changing scenery. At the present 
frame rate of around four a second the 
illusion of movement is quite amazing, 
the action completely involving. 

At perhaps 520,000 on the market, 
this is pin money in America. Eric 
believes that at this price "the street 
will find its own use for it". He's set 
up his own company. Senses, to see 
how the street reacts. 

The machines will get better, there's 
no doubt of that. The only question is 
what use we'll make of it all. 




The world as seen through Eric Gullichsen's eyephones. inside the hut on the left is on Amiga containing vat another alternative reality 



77 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



ii^ittiiim^iiHiii Nili'ilJIWiktiiil 



Unit 11, Kingdom Park, Brunei Way, 

Segensworth East, Titchfield, Hants P015 5TJ 

Tel: 0489 885911 or Fax: 0489 885651 



Visitors welcome at our showroom, Mon-Fri 9-5.30 
12 months guarantee. Many more items in stock. 

Phone for full price list/catatogue. 
Securicor delivery £7.00 + VAT, Post £1.00 + VAT, 

Large items £3.06 + VAT 



Printer prices include 
Paper & Cable 



Citizen 120D 
£104 



Citizen Swill 24 
E265 



Panasonic 1124 
£229 



Panasonic 1180 
£139 



Star LC10 Colour 

£169 



Star LCIOMono 
£129 



Star LCIOMono 
£129 



Star LC2410 
£199 



Epson LX400 
£139 



Epson LQ400 
£215 



Epson LQ550 

£233 



Al) prices are 
exclusive of VAT 



Hewlett Packard 

Deskjet Plus 

£585 



Inlegrei Colour 

Jet Primer 

£540 



LC10 4 LC241Q 

Cut Sheet Feeder 

£51.30 



Universal Printer 

Stand YU S25A 

£22.51 



Amstrad LQ35QD 
£191 



RIBBONS 
1200D Original ....£4.00 

LC1D Colour £6.00 

LCIOMono £4.00 

LC2410 £5.00 

Panasonic 1124.... £8. 65 
Deskjet Cartridge £14.05 



Other 
Accessaries 



Philips 8833 

Colour Monitor 

£204 



Acorn A KF1 1/2 

Colour Monitor 

£186 



Cumana Disc Drive 
£72 



Amiga 501 Upgrade 
E101 



Amiga Batpack 
£312 



Amiga Class ot 90s 
£460 



x 10 3.5" discs D/SD/D £7.39 

3.5" 100 Disc Boi £8,91 

3.5" SO Disc Box £5,17 

3.5" 120 Disc Box E7.35 



FULL RANGE OF AMIGA 
SOFTWARE ON REQUEST 



Access & Visa welcome. 
Prices subject to change 



Reach the top 
with . . . 



[LCL| 
Self-Tuition Courses 



World leaders - Hon s graduate/ teacher authors- At all major 
shows - £5 off total for 2, £10 off for 3 




MICRO MATHS | 



Complete course taking beginners to GCSE in 24 
programs on 59 topics + 2 books. £24 (Amiga, ST, PC, 
PCW, CPC, BBC) 



| MICRO FRENCH fr 



Complete course taking beginners 10 GCSE, with real 
speech & graphics adventure game, 24 programs + 2 
books. £24 (Amiga, ST, PC, BBC). 



| MICRO ENGLISH b 



Complete course taking age 8 years to GCSE English 
Language, with real speech. Also for EFL. It covers 
punctuation, spelling and much more. 24 programs and 
2 books at £24 (Amiga, PCW, CPC, BBC). 



| HOME COLLEGE '[ 



Micro maths, French or English with VHS video £49.99 
(Amiga, ST, PC, PCW, CPC, BBC). 

Send coupon and cheques/PCs or phone orders or requests for free colour 
poster/catalogue to: 

LCL (DEPT AMC) THAMES HOUSE, 73 BLANDY ROAD, 
HENLEY-ON-THAMES, OXON RG9 1QB 




MAKE YOUR ^MSmGA EARN! 



Yes making money with your Amiga becomes incidental when you 
know how. Your micro is, if only you knew it, a gold mine. The size and 
make is irrelevant. Make the initial effort. NOW by starting your own 
HOME BASED BUSINESS. 

This may be the most important move you will ever make! 
REMEMBER: You'll never get rich by digging someone else's "ditch", 
Anyone in the country, including YOU, can become very rich in a 
relatively short period of time just by doing a few basic things! It's more 
rewarding than playing games, The benefits are many and varied. Full 
or part time. For FREE details send S.A.E. to: 

/TJ"V -nj-iArVT-rv vwv 



31 PILTON PLACE (AM6) 

KING AND QUEEN STREET 

WALWORTH, LONDON SE17 1DR 





AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN 
LOOK!! 

•HUNDREDS OF TITLES* "STARTER PACKS ' 
'FAST, RELIABLE SERVICE- 
LOOK!! 
£1.80 each of £16.50/10 



Pack A Delirious 1,2, 3. 4 (4 Disks) £6.50 

Pack F Titanix, Crusaders, Trash & TTB Music (3 Disks) E5.00 

Pack I Vortex. Anlilrax, & Norlhstar Megademos.. (3 Disks)..... £5,00 

Pack K DOC, Wild Copper, & RIP Daraos (3 Disks) £5.00 

Pack L Every inch a Lady, Sam Fox. Sabrina DBmos (3 Disks) £5.00 

Pack M Tiffany. Kylie. 4 Debbie Gibson Demos (3 Disks) £5.00 

MANY MORE OFFERS & STARTER PACKS SEND S.A.E. FOR FULL LIST 
PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES«3STAL ORDERS PAYABLE TO: 



MAGNETIC MEDIA 

VICTORIA ARCADE, ALDERGATE 
TAMWORTH. STAFFS B79 7DL 
TEL: 0827 59566 



PRICE INCLUDES VAT, 
1st CLASS POST IN UK 

(Ajrmail Postage Europe/ Scandinavia £3 50/10 
Other countries £6.50/10 



Computer repairs 



STOP PRESS; 

A500 512K RAM 

upgrade switchable £54 



- FIRST AID 

FOR 
TECHNOLOGY 

MRMMMnii 



ATARI ST/AMIGA 

Simply .send your machine alo 
with a £15 diagnosl 
you will be sent 
quotation for the cost of 
repairing your machine. 

• TyPl^fi?e^&45. 1 WEEK TURNAROUND * 

W.T.S. ELECTRONICS LTD, CHAUL END LANE, LUTON, BEDS LU4 8EZ 
Tel: 0582 491949 (4 LINES). Fax: 0582 505900 





78 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




2MEG BOARD 



2000 'SLOT MACHINE' ™ 

For the 2000 with auto-booting and driver software. Ready 
formatted. Can be a hard card or with drive mounted in a 
drive bay or in an external case. Your choice. ( We can 
provide just the interface if you provide the ST506 drive). 
Uses the OMTI cache memory card that is RAPID! Read 
speeds near to 500K a second are possible. We can sell 
you a 40 meg system for E450 plus carrage but for the 
serious user we recommend the very latest drive, a 66 meg 
3.5 Inch 24 mill/sec access drive that you can hardly hear 
running and at £599 ft Is a steal. Don't forget, with our 
systems you double the capacity by the purchase of a 
second drive only! Highly recommended by AMIGA USER 
INTERNATIONAL and 17 BIT SOFTWARE 

A500/A1000 HARD DRIVES 

Exactly the same specification as above but obviously 
external mounted in a fan cooled case that can take two 
half-height drives or one high-tec full height drive. These 
drives are not a toy 20 meg but for the serious usar/hobbyist. 
Even 40 megs is sometimes not enough but one will cost you 
£499 plus carrage but try to start with the 66 meg at £625 for 
rapid mass storage. We have larger capacity drives. 
B2000 CLONE BOXES allow you to use up to 2 
B2000 cards in your A1 000/A500 eg Hard Card and 8 meg 
board £99 

SOUND TRAP 3 JUST GOT BETTER! 



h 



<J 



i 



SOUND TRAP™ 3 now with 
AUDIOM ASTER II 

THE BEST HARDWARE AND THE BEST SOFTWARE for 
all AMIGAS to give superior soundsampling. ST3 and 
Audlomaster 2 £59.95 all inc. ST3 on ft's own still £37.50 
AUDIOMASTER2 £25 TO ST3 USERS SONIX £25 INC 
BABY MIDI INTERFACE THE SIZE OF A SMALL PRINTER 
PLUG. IN--OUT--PASS THRU' £27.50 



A500 memory board uses low power CMOS chips as 512k, 
1 meg or 2 meg. Transparent auto-configure. No leads or 
jumpers, multi-layered board, buffered at £299 for 2 megs 

1.5MEG BOARD 

A1 000 memory board with clock, can autoconfigure 51 2k 
1 meg & 1 .5 meg software ram test disk 1.5 megs £270 

OCTABYTE™ 8MEG - 2000 

For the 2000 and the new AX-S expansion system. 
With a ram controller chip for contiguous ram not fragmented! 
Software support disk tests ram. The latest technology, not a 
board a few years old. 2 megs £299 8 meg £799 

X-RAM™ 8MEG - A500-A1000 

The same as 'OCTABYTE' but in a slimline case with optional 
power supply.. . t X-RAM can be 

£335 for U /N used in your 2000 

K w » k.M when you upgrade 



WE 

HAVE THE 
BEST PRICE 
ON512KA5O0 
EXPANSIONS 



'IT CAME FROM THE 

DESERT'-ONE MEG GAME 

51 2K SPIRIT RAM BO/ 
WITH CLOCK 
£74.99 
ALL INCLUSIVE 



WE ALSO 
NCLUDEA 
TIUT1ES 
DISK TO 

RESET THE CLOCK HIT BY A VIRUS AND KILL FAST 
MEMORY (NO NEED FOR SILLY SWITCHES NOW) 

INTERLOCK™ GENLOCK E3 99 



X-COPY2.1 



inclusive of postage £17.50 

HARDWARE £17.50 Upgrades £3,50 (Send your disk) 
HARDWARE & SOFTWARE £29.95 all inclusive 

FULL B2000 SYSTEMS 

We can now supply the B2000 & Fatter Agnus at 
£795 plus VAT. We can also supply HARD DRIVES, 
BRIDGEBOARDS, ACCELERATOR CARDS, COLOUR 
MONITORS, 8 MEG BOARDS, in fact almost anything 
or any configuration you want. Call us for a quote. 
We will shortly be operating Commodore's new offer 
of getting £300 back on your A500 against a B2000 
MORE DETAILS ARE AVAILABLE IN OUR BROCHURE AS WELL 
AS A COMPREHENSIVE ARTICLE ON ALL YOU NEED TO 
KNOW ABOUT HARD DRIVES & MEMORY, REQUEST IT NOWII 



E*rr]3 



BYTES & PIECES, 37 CECIL STREET, LYTHAM, LANCS, FY8 5NN, UK 
Tel 0253-734218 Fax 0253-714141 ON-LINE Support number available 

Callers by appointment please. Open 1 1am to 6pm Monday to Friday Prices include VAT 

We are the Official Spirit Technology distributors and manufacturers. 

Dealer enquiries welcome from the UK, Scandinavia and Northern Europe. 



~\S/SJ\ 




Steve Davis 

jylarW SNOOK E 



SAVE 

£5 



Play Steve Davis at his own 
game in the most popular 
snooker simulation the home 
computer has ever seen 






wi 




FT 



RRP £19.95 
OUR PRICE 

£14.95 



• Snooker, 10 ball or 15 ball 

• Billiards, English or French 

• Pool, American or English 

• Smooth, fast movement 

• Six skill levels 

• Trick shots 

• Table editor 

• Magnify option 

• Digitised pictures and sound 

It's the perfect game for billiards 
and snooker fans of all ages, a 
game you'll come back to again 
and again, year after year 



"A classic game..." - 

Amiga Computing, July 1989 



WHILE STOCKS LAST USE THE FORM ON PAGE 113 



E? MISTRAL COMPUTER 



-jMlfc, SUPPLIES ^Mfc 
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■:■ ■ :".: : '-.■: ; ■ .. \_, _._] ....;.' '. 



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F29 Rclalialnr ift.99 

Thin) Courier 16.99 

First Contact 16.99 

American Dreams 16.99 

Supreme Challejiee... 19.99 

Space Rogue 19.99 

Fire Brig adc 19.99 

Pipe Mania 16.99 

Plavcr Manager 1359 

Dragons Btealh 19.99 

World Boxing Manager 13.99 

Chess Plavcr 2150 16.99 

lls-pcr Action 16.99 

Escape from .Sir.ges Castle 29.99 

T.V. Sports Basketball 19.99 

Tower of Babel 16.99 

After the War 13.99 

Full Metal Jacket 16.99 

Rainbow Island 13.99 

Manchester United 1 6.99 

Infestaliun 16.99 

Cvbciball 13.99 

PJ7 Thuntleiball 16.99 

Typhoon Thnmpvm 16.99 

Renaissance 13.99 



War Head 1699 

Xcnomcph 16.99 

Crossbow 13.99 

Supcrcars 13.99 

Scramble Spirits 1 3.99 

Risk 13.99 

Hume: (CXIcr 3.99 

Hoi Rod 16.99 

Buckikan 16.99 

Datastorm .. 13.99 

Interceptor 16.99 

Batman 16.99 

New Zealand Slory 16.99 

Roboccp 16.99 

Pinball Magic 16.99 

Predator 16.99 

F16 Falcon 19.99 

Falcon Mission Disk 13.99 

Ga/jta's Soccer 16.99 

Double Dragon II 13.99 

Xenon II 16.99 

Super Wnndcrboy 16.99 

Beach Vollev 16.99 

Space Ace 19.99 

Ninja Warrior 13.99 



• ••• AMIGA HARDWARE •••• 



Amiga 500 Bat Pack -SPECIAL OFFER' phone 

Amiga Bat Pack or Flight of Fantasy with Tenstar Pack £379.99 

Amiga 500 Flight of fcntuv P« k .£359.99 

A590 Hard Drive 20 MB •SPECIALOFFER* 1352.99 

Comma External disk drive £79.99 

1084S Colour Moniio- C249.99 

A501 Ram Expansion £S9.99 

Mistral Ram Expansion with clock £f>5.99 

3.5" Disks unbranded. boxed and fully guaranteed 
10 .50p each 50+ .45p each 



s,ndch, qBr ipoto: Mistral Computer Supplies, 42 Park Way, 
Havant, Hants P09 1HH 

Add £5 p*r ilt-m lo rover 1*1 daw pur*! j^t on all Hurdw yr*. 
Send for full Software and Hardware list. Software available for all formal* 



CONTROL THE UNIVERSE! 

"I'm totally awed by what you have clone!. ..it's beautiful , 
especially when the lights are off. ..congratulations..." 

Arthur C.Clarke 

author oi' 20Pl:AS!Mcc CVvsse; 

Distant Suns (Commodore Amiga™ only), the award-winning 

planetarium blockbuster, is now available in the UK in PAL! 
Endless entertainment and education for all. Ask lor it! 




'Virtual 'J\ea[ity Laboratories, Inc. 

2341 Ganaclor Court 

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 USA 



BO AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



REVIEW 



HOW many stars do you think 
are in our galaxy? Thousands? 
Millions? It has been calculated that 
our sun is only one of 10 billion stars 
in a universe filled by a multitude of 
similar galaxies, In other words, there 
are an awful lot. 

If you stood in your hack garden on 
a cold, clear moonless night, you 
could probably see about 1,000 stars 
and perhaps one or two of the brighter 
planets. If vou then got into your car 
and drove into the country, far away 
from the pollution of the towns and 
cities, you would be able to see more 
stars than you could count in a 
lifetime. 

We are lucky enough to live in an 
exciting universe which needs only 
the smallest of tools to explore but the 
most complex of machines to 
understand. 

The computer has always played an 
important part in helping astronomers 
in their calculations. Even the ancient 



become good enough to begin to 
model the; night sky with anything 
approaching realism. With the 
capabilities of the Amiga, suddenly 
things start to become very real 
indeed. 

The excellent manual 
accompanying Distant Suns 
recommends you view its graphics in 
a dark room, with the contrast and 
brightness adjusted for maximum 
enjoyment. The manual is correct - it 
looks fabulous. It's like having your 
own private planetarium. If only it 

John Kennedy takes 

a trip through the 

universe with a 

program tailor-made 

for the amateur 

astronomer 



would do Dark Side of The Moon laser 
shows... 

Probably the best starting display is 
obtained by selecting the Local option 
from the pull-down menus. After 
setting your latitude and longitude 
coordinates, choose any time and date 
from 9999 BC to AD 9999. 

Almost immediately - almost, 
because there are a lot of sums to do - 
vou are presented with the view from 
your garden. If, like mine, your garden 
isn't transparent, you can also select 
the landscape facility to help you find 
your bearings. It provides a solid slab 
of grey to block out the stars beneath 
the horizon. 

For that final touch of realism you 
can select the amount of light in the 
neighbouring area to take street lights 
into account. 

The outline of the constellations 
will be drawn in if you wish, to 
provide an easy way to identify them. 



Like heaven on 



druids had to use the latest in silicon 
hardware In help predict ihe changing 
of the seasons. If we could only find 
the instruction manual, Stonehenge 
would probably still be useful today. 
Traditionally, the early electronic 
computers did little more than 
produce streams of numbers to 
pinpoint stars' positions. 
Only in the past five 
years or so have 
graphics 




REVIEW 



The stars can be named individually, 
and data on them displayed or sent to 
the printer. 

By switching on die timing system 
the sky will be re-drawn as Earth 
rotates in real or accelerated time - 
perfect for watching the retrograde 
motion of the planets as they suddenly 
change their heavenly minds and start 
going backwards for a bit. 

An overhead view of the entire solar 
system is available to help explain 
their apparently complex motion. An 
excellent teaching tool. 



IMAGINE the largest telescope ever 
built, with a huge magnification 
arid a colossal light gathering power. 
Now aim it at a star. What would you 
see? 

Sadly, you would still see only a 
tiny point. It might be a very bright 
point, but still only a point. Stars are 
too mind-bogglingly far away to be 
anything other than geometric pin- 
pricks. 

To the casual observer they can 
seem cold, clinical and lifeless. Dull 
even. But being the interested part- 
time astronomers we Amiga users are, 
we know that the stars are anything 
but dull. There are enough variables 
and binaries up there to keep even the 
most ardent skywatcher happy. 

For those looking for something 
slightly more dynamic, the planets are 
a joy to behold. This is when a 
reasonably cheap telescope will be at 
its best. 

Suddenly Jupiter is no longer a 
point but a tiny disc, complete with 
bands and spot. Saturn's rings become 
visible. The ice cap on Mars can be 
studied. 

And all without going outdoors, 
because these phenomena can be 
observed on-screen by selecting the 
telescope option. It produces a 
wonderful display in the corner of the 




- lw 

Itv MMf 

\ttxt 

swu 

• — - - . &•*■»• 

— rf ' "• ' — .* 

'--- ' 'fltaw 

__-- — -" ___— -wttij" 


« * 

pa 

cfl i H 
Ate 
loon 

rate: »: 
II* 1,1** 
U:H«| 

pl*»liriw; 



screen which operates in the same 
inverted way as a real telescope for 
extra authenticity. The Moon and 
planets can also be viewed through 
the imaginary 'scope to examine their 
phase and any prominent features. 

Flexibility is the name of the game. 
Distant Suns comes with a database of 
more than 2,200 stars, but it can be 
expanded to 9,100 with promised data 
discs. The stars provided are enough 
to be getting on with, unless you are 
interested in some whose magnitudes 
are quite low. 

The Messier catalogue of objects, 
effectively a collection of fuzzy objects 
that might be mistaken for comets, is 
included: 250 of the more interesting 
New General Catalogue elements are 
also provided. 

A user defined data section is 
available, so if by chance a new comet 
comes into view, you can update the 
file to include it. 

Distant Suns is a program that I 
know I would use. Picture me if you 
will, preparing to go on one of my 
stargazing excursions. Warm duffle 
coat, thermal gloves, little bobble hat 
and tartan Thermos flask full of 
something that started life as coffee. 
Thank goodness it's dark and no one 
will see me. 

I plan the observations I want to 
make before 1 go, which involves 
sitting at my desk with my calculator 
and a big book of astronomical data. I 
work out which planets are likely to 
be visible, because looking at planets 
is my favourite thing. 

So I scribble down some rough 
coordinates, grab my rotating 
planisphere and some HP5 black-and- 



The motion of the planets can be more 
easily understood by watching their orbits 
as tbev snake across the screen 



All the 

constellations. 

including 

those not 

normally 

visible from 

Macclesfield, 

can be named 

to help the 

casual 

observer 



white film from the fridge, then load 
up the boot of the car with my second- 
hand 3in reflector. A short drive to 
somewhere dark and I can begin to 
settle down and do some looking. 

Normally by this time I realise I 
made a mistake in my sums, Plus 1 can 
no longer read my handwriting. What 
time was Jupiter rising again? 
Whoops, forgot the moon was going to 
be so bright. Usually, it's a right mess; 
I drink the horribly lukewarm 
contents of my flask and come home 
again. 

However, now I am an Amiga owner 
with a copy of Distant Suns. So I load 
it, make sure it is set for 53°22'N, 
2°14'W and the correct date. Now I 
can find the planets I want, dump the 
screen to an art package and print it 
out on my printer. As a result I have a 
specific, accurate skymap of exactly 
what I am likely to see. 

The only problem is it doesn't 
predict the weather. It's cloudy again. 
Sigh. 



REPORT CARD 



Distant Suns 

HB Marketing 0895 444433 

£59.95 



HU 



EASE OF USE.... 

It would be nice to be able to interrupt 

the stat drawing to select another 

feature. 



SPEED 

Fast enough. 



01 






VALUE 

You could buy a good set of binoculars 
for this much cash. 



OVERALL 



Wonderful. Like being outside on a 
clear night, only warmer. 



82 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



TO YOUR 
DISK 



FOR ONLY 

£34.99 







THE 




SYNCRO EXPRESS IS A HIGH SPEED DISK DUPLICATION SYSTEM THAT WILL PRODUCE COPIES OF YOUR DISK 
IN AROUND 50 SECONDS!! 

Syncro Express requires a second drive & works by controlling it as a slave device & ignoring the ST or Amiga 
disk drive controller chip wheteby hig*h speeds & great data accuracy are achieved. 

: Menu driven selection for Start Track/End Track - up to 80 tracks. 1 side, 2 sides. 



• Very simple to use, requires no user knowledge, 

• Ideal for clubs, user groups or just for your own disks. 

" Probably the only duplication system you will ever need! 



Also duplicates other formats such as IBM, MAC etc. 
No more waiting around tor your disks to copy. 



E LATEST CUSTOM LSI CHIP TECHNOLOGY 

By using an on-board Custom LSI Chip, Syncro Express has the power to transfer an 

MFM image of the original disk directly to your blank disk - quickly, simply and 

without any user knowledge. One external disk drive is required*. ' 

SYNCRO EXPRESS IS AVAILABLE FOR BOTH THE ST AND AMIGA SYSTEMS 
PLEASE STATE WHICH REQUIRED WHEN ORDERING 



WARNING 1988 COPYRIGHT ACT WARNING 

Datel Electronics Lid . neiiher condones not authorises the use of its producls lot the lepfod uction of 

copyright material. 

The backup facilities ol this product are designed to reproduce only software sucti as Public Domain 

material, tna users own pf ogr ams or software where permission to make a backup has been clearly given I 

It is illegal lo make copies, even lot yo^r own use. o1 copyright malarial, without the express permission of | 

the copyright owner, or the ficercM tberaol. 



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TECHNICAL/CUSTOMER SERVICE 0782 744324 ""-^i*^^ 



While the UK waits to see 
Commodore's A3 000, Stewart C. 
Russell looks at a rival system 
that is available now. 



the 

power 
game 



IV OLLS-ROYCES and Amigas 
■*■ *■ have much in common. Not just 
because they are the best of their kind, 
but also because they are both, in the 
words of R-R's marketing department, 
adequately powerful. 

For most of the time the Amiga 
won't keep you waiting for too long. 



A 33 MHz 68030, 4Mb of 32 bit 
ram and an FPU - all in one slot 



showing a clean pair of heels even to 
speedy PC clones. But for the 
dedicated number cruncher, the stock 
Amiga simply isn't fast enough. 

This fact hasn't escaped the 
attention of a fair number of 
peripheral manufacturers. There are 
several speed-up boards on the 



The Quantum 40Mb drive has a 
read access time of 1 1 milliseconds 




COVER STORY 



market, Hinging from the cheap and 
moderately useful, through the mid- 
priced and deeply incompatible, right 
up to the very zenith of desktop 
computing. Zenith-wise, the GVP 33 
MHz system is it. Cost-wise, likewise. 

For the last couple of years, Great 
Valley Products (GVP to its friends] 
has kept the Stateside market 
enthralled by the regularity and 
quality of its peripherals. Perhaps best 
known in the UK for its hard drives, 
GVP is a bunch of guys who left 
Commodore to go it alone and have 
frequently beaten Commodore-Amiga 
to the market with better equipped 
and lower cost products. 

Commodore has been threatening to 
release a 68030 board for the 2000 for 
about a year now, and is running true 
to form by not having it on the market 
yet. Commodore perceives the main 
market for 68030 systems to be in 
Unix, an operating system designed 
around the tenet "Speed kills". 

The GVP 68030 accelerator - 
snappily titled the A3001 - is 
available in speeds from 16 to 33 
MHz, an optional 68882 maths co- 
processor and four or eight megabytes 
of very special 32-bit ram. 

The package can also include a 
Quantum ProDrive 40 or 80 megabyte 
hard drive. By now we're talking 
serious moolah. You would not even 
consider running games on this 
system. Well, not all the time anyway. 

Alarm bells may be ringing for some 
of you. A standard Amiga's processor 
runs at about 7 MHz, derived by 
quartering the signal from a 28 MHz 
oscillator. In order to keep the custom 
chips happy, previous accelerators 
have had to run at twice the processor 
speed and then hang about for up to 
half a 7 MHz cycle when talking to the 
custom chips. This is not as bad as it 
sounds, but things get awkward when 
genlocks are introduced. 

Genlocks hijack the system clock in 
order to synchronise with the video 
system. What is an acceptable clock 
accuracy for video work is also 
acceptable for the 7 MHz system; but a 
double speed processor may object to 
the slight distortion and odd things 
may start to happen. 

GVP's solution is unorthodox, yet 
very simple. Basically, the processor 
runs as fast as it wants and then slows 
down when it has to do any input or 
output to the motherboard. 

This asynchronous design gives 
tremendous flexibility in that any 



i This is the 
best aid to 
creativity 
there is ) 



clock speed may be used, not just a 
multiple of 7 MHz. In fact, with a 
minor change to the auxiliary logic 
chips on the board, a 50 MHz 
68030/68882 could be used. 

That would be fast, but very, very 
expensive; the 50 MHz processor 
alone costs around $750 in the States, 
and then there's the small 
consideration of the cost of 60 
nanosecond ram chips... 

The Motorola MC68030 is a 
wonderful chip. It combines the 32-bit 
capabilities of the 68020 with the 
68851 Memory Management Unit, 
adds an extra 256 longwords of cache, 
making 2k bytes in total - 256 
longwords for data, and 256 
longwords For instructions. And it has 
a few more tricks up its sleeve. 

The memory management unit 
allows tasks to have a private area of 
ram which cannot be altered by 
concurrent tasks. AmigaDos wasn't 
written with the MMU in mind; Unix 
won't work without it. 

ANOTHER fabulous trick of the 
68030 is Burst Mode. This 
allows, in this implementation, four 
longwords to be read into the cache in 
only eight c.loi k cycles. On a :\A Mil/ 
system that's a theoretical data transfer 
rate of over 63.5 megabytes per 
second! 

The disadvantage of using Burst 
Mode is that special ram chips which 
can be accessed in 4-bit chunks are 
needed. These chips aren't in 
widespread use in the industry, so are 
expensive. Still, with the two 
processor caches, and Burst Mode 
enabled, the GVP system runs at zero 
wait-states - the processor never has 
to skip a cycle to wait for the ram 
chips. 

The 68882 Floating Point Unit is a 
clever device which watches the 
instructions coming into the 
processor. When it finds one that it 
knows about, it grabs it and processes 



it, leaving the 68030 free to do other 
things. 

The FPU has special hardware and 
long [64-bit} registers to handle both 
single precision and double precision 
floating point mathematics. As the 
standard AmigaDos maths libraries are 
already FPU-compatible, existing 
software runs that much more quickly. 
The FPU runs asynchronously from 
the 68030, so it is possible to replace 
the 33 MHz FPU and oscillator with a 
50 MHz unit. Anyone for real-time ray 
tracing? 

FITTING the GVP unit is 
simplicity itself. Open the 2000 
box and fit the board into the co- 
processor slot. Put it all back together 
and run some software to make sure 
everything works OK. 

If you buy the GVP AT hard drive at 
the same time, you still have only one 
board to fit; the hard drive controller 
lives on a piggy-back board and 
thereby doesn't use any slots. 

The only slight aberration in the 
otherwise good manual occurs in the 
fitting of the hard drive. Both sections 
on fitting the 68030 board and fitting 
the hard drive are very good; 
unfortunately, they happen to be in 
the wrong order. Much amusement 
can be had when, after carefully fitting 
the 68030 board, the manual tells you 
to take it back out to fit the hard drive. 

Instead of following the SCSI crowd, 
GVP has used the same interface as in 
the IBM PC AT, since it is just as fast, 
simpler to implement, and the discs 
and controllers are cheaper. 

GVP's design allows direct memory 
access to the on-board 32-bit memory, 
giving very high data transfer rates 
with no interference from chip- 
intensive overscanned displays. 

The Quantum drives recommended 
by GVP have a write-access time of 19 
milliseconds and a read-access time of 
11 milliseconds. This seeming 
paradox is due to the unit reading an 
entire track into a 64k cache —because 
data files tend to live on contiguous 
sectors, the access time appears faster 
than it really is. 

Installing the hard drive is a mere 
matter of fixing some screws under the 
drive and plugging in some 
connectors. The installation software 
is extremely simple and well written, 
being a series of small programs 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 as 



Greater London Computers 



HARDWARE 

AMIGA 500 BATMAN pack £389.95 

AMIGA 500 Class of the 90s pack £559.95 

AMIGA 500 Dragon's Lair pack £499.95 

MONITOR 

A1084 Colour Monitor £279.95 

Philips CM8833 £299.95 

Philips BM7502 (AMBER) £92.95 

DISK DRIVES 

A1011 External 3.5 - Disk Drive.... £99.95 

Cumana External 3.5' External Disk 

Drive + PSU £129.95 

Cumana External 5.75" Disk Drive £99.95 

A590 20Mb Hard Autobaot Hard Disk... £399.95 

PRINTERS 

MPS1230 Printer £229.95 

MPS 1550 Colour Printer £249.95 

Parallel Lead £8.95 

OTHERS 

A501 512kb Memory Expansion £99.95 

A520 TV Modulator £24.95 

A1352 Replacement Mouse £39.95 

JOYSTICKS 

Navigator Joystick £14.95 

Quickshot Turbo Joystick £9.95 

Zip Stick Super Pro £12.95 

MISC 

4 Player Adaptor Lead £4.95 

Parrallel Lead £8.95 

Mouse Mat £3.gs 

3.5" Disk Head Cleaner £4.95 



418 Hale End Road, 

HlghamsPark. 

Chingford, 

London, 

E49PT 

Tel: 081 527-0405 
Fax: 081 531-2688 

Delivery 

All orders of £50 or over include 
nationwide delivery. Orders of over 
£400 include guaranteed next da/ 
delivery by DATAPOST. 

Plugs 

All computers are supplied with a 
correctly fused plug fitted, 

Payment 

Greater London Conmputers are: 
pleased to accept cheques made 
payable to our parent company: 
M S ENTERPRISES. (All cheques 
will be rapid cleared & goods 
despatched when they are cleared}. 

Credit Cards, we accept 
Mastercard, Visa, Access, EuroCard 
and all equivalent cards. (Credit 
card orders can be made by post or 
telephone.) 




KAD-SOFT UK 

THE NEW NAME IN AMIGA PD 



KA1 - The Business Collection, Editor, 

Spreadsheet & Database 

KA2 - Ward Processor & Spellchecker 

KA3 • C-Compiler Assembler & Linker 

KA4 - Database Collection 

KA5 ■ Disk Doctor Collection 

KA6 • CLI Help. Worried by CLI? This one will 

make everything clear. 

KA7 - A Collection ol brilliant arcade games. 

KA8 ■ Predators Mega Demo. Brilliant twin disk 

demo. 

KA9 - Break out construction set 

KATO - Nightmare on Elm Street Demo 

KA11 - North Star and Silent Demo 

KA12 . Star Trek Modulator 2 Game 

KA13 - Deluxe Music Construction Kit. 

KA14 - Magnetic Fields Demo. The Ultimate 

Sobs 4 Sprites Demo 

KA15 - Robocap Demo. Brilliant 

K A1 6 ■ Slar Trek The Next Generation. 1 Meg 

shareware version 

KA1 7 - Space Ace demo 

KA18 ■ The North Star Mega Demo 



KA19 - Cool Cougar Demo. Cartoon quality 

KA20 - Virus Killer 

KA21 - The Anti-ST Demo Disk 

KA22 - The Miami Vice demo. Digitized sounds 

KA23 - Kylie Minogue Demo disk 1 

KA24 - Kylie Minogue Demo disk 2. Needs 

KA23 to run. 

KA25 - Lam version 12 Brilliant Dungeons and 

Dragons game. 

KA26 ■ Shanghai. Playable demo ot great 

game. 

KA27 - Utilities collection 1 . Ouick copy. P copy. 

Dir Master, Funckery. Blitz, Virus X 

KA28 - Games Collection 1. Cribbage. Tiles. 

Bullrun. Tic Tac Toe. 

KA29 ■ Games Collection 2, Amoeba, Yelp, 

Rock Slide, Egyptian Run. 

KA30 • Bankn, Home Help. Home Finance 

Packages. 



All discs - £2.50 inc P&P 
Ring for FREE Catalogue 



We stock the complete range of Fish, Amicus, Slip 
Disk, T-Bag and Panorama Disk Collections. 



DISKS 

3.5" 1 35 tpi DD/DS Disks Unbranded 
KAO, Sony) 100% error free. Certified 
very high quality will format to 880k 
easily. 

10 20 50 100 

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All price include PSP, Labels 

No quibble Money Back Guarantee 



ACCESSORIES 

Disk Boxes 

40 cap £4.10 50 cap - 
80 cap ■ £5.75 1 20 cap 
Mouse Mats ■ £3.50 
Mouse Holders - £3.50 
Amiga Dust Covers ■ £5.50 
Comp Pro 5000 -£12,40 



£4.90 
£7.50 



Amiga Batman Pack £375 inc VAT plus 10 PD disks 



Send Cheques & P/O's payable to: 

KAD-SOFT, 2 EBOR PADDOCK, 

CALNE, WILTS, SN11 OJY 

TEL: 0249 817174 




DELTABASE A - 

Analogue Yoke joys 
tick for Flight Sim 
Similar to a light air- 
craft control it rocks 
from side to side for aileron 
movement and slides in and out 
for elevator controls. £29.95 



DELTA 3A - A light 
action analogue 
joystick with lire but- 
tons. Introduced so 
that software com- 
panies can produce 
the software to use it. Mean- 
time this also will only run flight 
Sim II, £14.95 



DELTA 3S- A unique fast light hand held switched joystick with 
fingertip control which will have you still nipping around the screen, when 
the upright/sucker brigade are nursing their aching wrists. £14.95 

AMI-CAT - Mouse eliminator joystick for where a suitable surface 
cannot be found, AMI-CAT will provide variable speed control of mouse 
software. If you point ihe stick, the mouse pointer/cursor etc will move 
in that direction. The speed is proportional to the degree of deflection. 
When the stick is released the mouse pointer remains stationary. £29.95 

VOLTMACE 

Unit 9, Bondor Business Centre, London Road, Baldock. SG7 6HP 
Telephone 0462 894410 




\ 



Prices include VAT & 1st class post 
Dealer & Distributor terms available 




V 



AmigaTEX 

AmigaTEX provides a powerful alternative in document 
preparation. It enables you to typeset complex or long 
documents, especially those of a technical nature such as 
user manuals or journal papers. It gives you true typeset 
quality with kerning, ligatures, full floating accents, 
mathematical and technical symbols and the ability to 
produce tables and special formats. AmigaTEX will accept 
input from any text editor or word processor and with its built- 
•in screen previewer, a document formatter of mainframe 
power becomes available. Also included with AmigaTEX are 
LaTEX -a document formatter with dozens of preformed 
styles, SliTEX - a slide generating macro, and BibTEX - a 
bibliography database program. AmigaTEX is fully file 
compatible with other versions of TEX. 
Printer drivers are available for most printer types and the 
complete set of Computer Modem Fonts is included. A 
companion program METAFONT is available for those who 
wish to create new fonts or modify existing ones. 

AmigaTEX is £125 and printer driver sets (laser series, 

Epson FX series, NEC P6 and Epson LQ series, HP 

DeskJet} are priced at £75 each. METAFONT is £50. 

All prices include VAT and carriage. 

Access and Visa accepted. 

For further details and free demo disk write or call: 

THE TEXT FORMATTING COMPANY 

SUFFIELD WORKS, 1 SUFFIELD ROAD, LONDON N15 5JX 
TEL: 081 -802 4470 



86 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1900 



COVER STORY 



tacked together with AmigaDos script 
files. They may lack pretty displays, 
but they work, and quickly too. 

The one installation program will 
also do for the 68030/68882, so there's 
little danger of forgetting to install 
something. 

Testing a system like this is 
difficult. Because there are no fully 
accredited performance tests for the 
Amiga, it is not possible to give 
absolute figures. Also, as this is a 
professional system, no professional 
(at least, none I know) ever runs 
benchmarks, they run applications. 

So the performance of this system 
was measured relative to my own 
A500, which has three megabytes of 
ram and a 20 megabyte A590 hard 
drive. The tests are based on running 
applications for which I found the 
A500 to be annoyingly slow. 

Over a large number of tests, the 
GVP system works out around eight 
times faster for general work. This 
figure rises to about twelve times for 
IEEE maths work (thanks to the 68882) 
and drops to around four for hard 
drive intensive work. 

The system isn't any faster for pure 
blitter work; after all. the blitter isn't 
being run any faster. Unlike some 
68020 systems, no software runs any 
slower: Amiga Basic has a habit of 
doing this on lesser accelerators. 



I EVISING tests for this machine 
' proved difficult. In many 

cases, things that took a reasonable 
length of time on the A3001 took a 
completely unreasonable length of 
time on the A500, time I couldn't 
afford to waste. 

OK, so it's obvious that this machine 
is very, very fast, but how robust is the 
implementation? 

Physically, the boards are neatly 
made, and Quantum hard drives are 
built on a tank-like cast chassis. 
Software-wise, I couldn't fault it. 

GVP uses Dave Haynie's SetCPU to 
patch various functions, enable Burst 
Mode in both caches, and to relocate 
and protect an image of the Kickstart 
rom in 32-bit memory. 

I could only crash the system by 
running a program whose sole object 
in life is to cause a guru or to run 
some completely AmigaDos- 
unfriendly dirty cracker code, which 
does all sorts of nasty things like self- 
modify (and confound the cache) and 
store data in the upper 8 bits of an 
address. Yucko. The svstem can be set 



Benchmark descriptions 



Ray Trace: Fast floating point 320 x 

200 HAM image generated by Eric 

Graham's SSG ray tracer. (A frame 

from The Juggler.) 

Smooth: Smooth a 320 x 256 extra 

halfbrite (64 colour) brush on to itself 

using Deluxe Paint 3. 

Load Anim: Load a 360 frame 

animation into Deluxe Paint 3 from 

hard drive. (Frames interlaced, single 

bitplane 640 x 512.) 

X-CAD: Recover deleted Columbia 



Shuttle drawing from Undo buffer. 
(Approximately 750 entities using X- 
CAD Designer.) 

Mandelbrot: Generate plot of the 
Mandelbrot Set. Integer test used 32 
bit 68000 integer maths; IEEE test used 
64 bit floating point. Generated by 
MandelVroom v2.0. (Integer Max 
Iteration = 512. IEEE Max Iteration = 
64. Plot area from -2-J1.205 to 
2.82+J1.205, 302 x 244 pixels.) 



Benchmark results 



L 



Ray Trace 
Smooth 
Load ANIM 
X-CAD 

Mandlebrot Integer 
Mandlebrot IEEE 



A500/A590 



5880 sees 
113 sees 
122 sees 
31 sees 

345 sees 
2425 sees 



A3001/GVP AT 



720 sees 
12 sees 
34 sees 
4 sees 
40 sees 
203 sees 



SPEED INCREASE 



x8.2 

x9.4 

x3,6 

x7,8 

x8.6 

Xll.9 



up to boot in 68000 mode, but there is 
very little software - none I could find 
- that refuses point-blank to behave. 
The game Battle Squadron came up 
with odd graphics, but worked OK; 
that is the only glitch I encountered. 

The A3001 is the best aid to 
creativity there is. No more the long 
wait to see if a render has worked as 
expected, nor the agonising finger- 
drumming period as Deluxe Paint III 
anti-aliases. 

AmigaDos throws text at the screen 
as fast as the blitter can handle; it 
scrolls too fast to follow. You want a 
hard drive partition optimised? BAD 
does it in five minutes. And yes, the 
A3001 even alleviates Mandelbrot 
angst. For what more could one ask? 

If you use an Amiga for professional 
work, you will be able to justify the 
cost of this machine; the clients won't 
notice the extra expense, and the 
payback period will be over before 
you know it. Tony Ianiri of Power 
Computing says he has sold about 60 
of the 28 MHz GVP systems in the UK 
alone, so there is a demand for speed. 

But for home use? Well, if you have 
over three grand to lavish on your 
A2000, why not? You see, the GVP 
system is the perfect bit of reverse 
snobbery. There are no outward signs 
of what you have purring away inside 
the box; how exquisitely delicious! 

The words "I'm really going to miss 



this machine" don't begin to capture 
the slightest nuance of how attached 
to it I've become. Sigh, got any spare 
change for a 68030, mate? 



REPORT CARD 


GVP A3001 Upgrade Kit 

Power Computing 0234 273000 

33 MHz 68030/68882, 4 meg of ram, AT 

Hard Drive Interface, £2,750. (28 MHz 

system £1,999). 


EASE OF USE... . 




Very easy to fit, but only if yo 
manual backwards. Doesn't i 
any tinkering with after. 


u read the 
equire 


SOFTWARE . 


1 


Good installation and diagna 
software. You'll have to supp 
own software to show how fa 
Very good Unix potential. 


stic 

ly your 
tt it goes. 


SPEED 




Around eight times faster tha 
Amiga, sometimes more. The 
Amiga you can buy, bar none 


n a stock 
fastest 


VALUE 





Immense cost, but immense 
performance. If your work can justify 
the outlay, this is the best buy vou'll 
make. 



OVERALL 



The Ultimate Amiga so far. Strictly for 
professionals who demand the best 
performance and can afford it. 



AMIGA COMPUTING fane 1990 87 



17 BIT SOFTWARE 

'THAT BIT BETTER THAN THE REST' 



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A world of information 
at your fingertips 




Now you can keep it informed with the Idlest weather, financial news, sports results, 
current affairs and much more fromCeefax or Oracle. But unlike a Teletext TV all this 
valuable information isn't trapped behind glass. Now you can . . . 

Sive to disc. Pages may be saved in Compact (over $00 pages per disc) or IFF format. 

Print You can print as just text (for a fell result} Of as a -screen dump, 

Review, Instant access to the last Ifr pages which have been received. 

Speak. Thanks to the Amiga's speech capability, it will even read the news to you. 

Multiple display. It can display and update two pages on screen simultaneously. 

FastText. True FastTsxt gets pages in advance and reduces the waiting tinu 1 . 

Tumng.Just connect an aerial - it tunes itself in! Although the prime Function is to receive 
Teletext, it also wHl convert a 1081 or {084 monitor to a colour TV. 

Programmable. The system can be programmed togcla scries of pages and therr'saveor 
print them. Your own programs can access the data on Teletext. 

Only a Microtext adaptor can provide all these facilities, it's easy to use and connects to the 
parallel port, a printer can be reconnected to the adaptor. Everything is supplied, all you 
need is your Amiga and a normal TV aerial. 

At just £124.80 + VAT ine p/p for an advanced Teletext TV its excellent value for money. 
Make sure you're always up to dale, and get yours now from:- 



QMICROTEXTI^l 

Dept AG, 7 Birdlip Close, Horndean, Hants P08 9PW 
Tel: (0705) 595694 Fax: (0705) 593988 



ELECTRA PUBLIC DOMAIN 

A Fast and Efficient Service 

1 Disk £1.60 
10 or more Disks £14.00 

(Postage, Packing & VAT inclusive) 

In the event of a query please contact Paul King on 

071 433 3428 

Cheques or postal orders payable 1o P.J. King, 

Electra Public Domain, 35 Marlborough Mansions, 

Cannon Hill, London NW6 US 



AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN 

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PLEASE WAKE CHEQUES/POSTAL ORDERS PAYABLE TO: 



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VICTORIA ARCADE. ALDERGATE 
TAMWORTH. STAFFS B79 7DL 
TEL: 0827 59566 



PRICE INCLUDES VAT, 

1sl CLASS POST IN UK 

(Aimai! Postage Europe.Scjndinavta £3 xuia 

Oiflor counmes £6 50/1 G) 



88 AMIGA COMPUTING /une 1090 





Is your time best spent doing the 
books or doing the business? 

Equinox SBA Xtra can save you both time and mone y 



Q 

_7j ba Xtra is one of a range of programs 
^-^ designed for the small business manager 
who isn't a computer whizz or an accountant, but 
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No matter if you have an *1BM PC or 
compatible, Atari ST, Amiga or 
Amstrad, SBA Xtra loads simply into 
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comes with a really useful instruction 
manual and a step-by-step tutorial to 
ease you painlessly into the 
practicalities. We also give you 90-day 
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Unlike many other accounts 
packages, SBA Xtra comes complete 
with a full library of accounts, so you don't have 
to spend hours sorting out your own, simply 
amend ours. 

SBA Xtra easily manages standard or multiple 
VAT rates and works out for you exactly what to 




Compare the features 


Step-by-step Tutorial 


Balance Sheet 


90 Day Free User Help-line 


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Library Of Accounts 


Trial Balance 


Easy to Install From 1 Disc 


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Automatic Double Entry 


225 Nominal Accounts 


Budgets 


Day Books 


Floppy & Hard-disc System 


Debtor & Creditor Management 


Multiple Companies 


Multiple VAT rates 


Constant On Screen Cash and Profit Up-Date 



FPUINOX 



Keeps you in control of your business 



write on the VAT return. 

"VAT, that bugbear of business, is handled 
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The whole program emulates the 
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I have an IBM PC or compatible ; j Atari [_ Amiga □ 

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Name 

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Equinox Business Systems, FREEPOST, London EC2 2EB 



Easy come 



i 



WHAT would you do if you 
bought a half meg internal 
ram expansion only to find that 
comfortable multi-tasking is still at 
least another half meg away? Would 
you look at the bill and screw it up 
with frustration? I didn't. But 1 know a 
few who did. 

Memory expansion beyond half a 
meg used to be a problem with the 
A500. Most were external units that 
slotted on to the expansion port. Some 
didn't even have through connectors. 
Others went inside the machine but 
you needed a soldering iron and a 
degree in micro electronics to fit them. 
And then the shielding wouldn't go 
back in. 

A partial solution is the new breed 
of hard drives that come with slots for 
more ram. Commodore's A590 has 
room for 2 meg. the Xetec Fasttrak can 
cany 8 meg. 

But that involves an initial outlay of 
at least £400 for a hard drive you may 
not have wanted. Then you start 
saving for ram. 



NOW there is another way. 
Progressive Peripherals & 
Software (of Disk Master fame) has 
come up with the EXP-8000+ internal 
memory expansion board for the A500. 

Marketed in the UK by Third Coast 
Technologies Ltd. the bare board costs 
£250 and can be populated by 1 
megabit x 1 dynamic ram chips (dram, 
pronounced dee ram) in 2, 4 and 8 
meg increments - the board and 8 meg 
will set you back £1,099. 

I'll leave you to work out from that 
how much 2 meg of dram costs. Faster 
chips will cost more than slower ones; 
120 nanoseconds is the norm. 

Amazingly, the whole 8 meg can be 
accommodated internally, and it's not 
even a tight squeeze. 

The instructions are detailed but 
simple to follow. After removing the 
A500's upper case, keyboard and 



protective shielding, the EXP- 8000+ 
slots straight into the socket on the 
motherboard where your 68000 chip 
used to be. I say "used to be" because 
by now you will have (carefully) 
removed it and (carefully) pushed it 
into the slot provided for it on the 
expansion board, 

The EXP-8000+ measures 
approximately 250mm x 160mm and 
covers most of the uncovered bit of the 
AaOO's motherboard; a little stick-on 
rubber foot is supplied to keep the 
EXP-8000+ from damaging the 
motherboard and to stabilise things. 

If you have a 68881 maths co- 
processor, you can fit it to the EXP- 
8000+ and clip a red timing jumper 
lead from the expansion board on to 
Gary. Once the board is fitted you put 
everything back as you found it, 
including the protective shielding, 
plug everything back in, switch on 
and go. 

It took me half-an-hour to fit the 
EXP-8000+ into my A500. I'd never 
had the top off it before and I was 
surprised at how easy it all was. Too 
good to be true. I kept telling myself, 
but no, it worked first time. 



THIRD COAST gave me 8 meg of 
dram to play with for a month. 
The EXP-8000+ worked with my A501 
still in place, which meant I had 9 
meg in total. It was wonderful. I felt 
like I'd won a million on the pools. I 
didn't know what to spend it all on. 
So I multi-tasked Space Quest III and 
two Infocom adventures totally from 
ram. Great. No gurus. 

Then two of my favourite 
applications. Professional Page and 
Digi-Paint 3, began continually 
crashing with random meditation 
numbers. Ach! I wasn't multi-tasking, 
you understand, so it wasn't a chip 
ram problem. 

No, the gurus meant a further 
expenditure was necessary on a new, 




stronger, power supply unit (PSU) - 
one that is capable of putting out a 
minimum of +5 Volts at 4 Amps, +12 
volts at 1 amp and - 12 volts at 0.1 
amps. So says the manual. 

And if I tried to run the EXP-8000+ 
with an inadequate power supply it 
could cause permanent damage to 
both the EXP-8000+ and my A500. 

Ooer. I decided to take no chances. I 



90 AMIGA COMPUTING Imw 1930 



HARDWARE 



Getting the most from your A500 means 
splashing out on a few things. Ask any 
experienced user what to buy first, and 
he'll probably say half a meg of ram. But 
the decision to spend more money deserves 
greater thought, as Jeff Walker finds out 



s^jp 




8000+. I advise you to consider a new 
PSU at the same time. 

Once I had that problem beaten I 
went hell-for- leather and multi-tasked 
as many programs as I could. Chip 
ram gave out before I could fill the rest 
of memory, but then as well as Pretext, 
The Works, MusicBox and HiSoft 
Basic Compiler, I was running four 
paint and DTP applications as well. 

When the time came to give it all 
back to Third Coast. I needed only 15 
minutes to disassemble the A500. 
remove the board and re-assemble 
everything. 

I'm ahead}' missing the multi- 
tasking at home on evenings and 
weekends, being able to carry on 
working normally while uploading 
copy to my typesetters, for instance. 
Sigh. 

The EXP-8000+ and 2 meg of dram 
is going to cost me about £450 - £500. I 
could get another A500. half a meg of 
ram and a second floppy drive for that 
price. But then I'd be back to square 
one. Wouldn't I? 



REPORT CARD 



EXP-8000+ 

Third Coast 0257 472444 

£249.99 

EASE OF USE .... 
It helps if you have the proper torx 
screwdriver to open the Amiga, but art 
old fashioned alien key will do the job 
just as well. 



PERFORMANCE 

Worked first time, kept on working for a 
month of heavy use. Didn't overheat in 
the slightest. Multi-tasking at this level 
is a deeply wonderful experience. 

Mm 



VALUE 

Not cheap. Plus you will need to buy a 
more powerful power supply unit. Look 
on it as an investment for the future. 
The price of dram will fall. 



OVERALL 



Criticising a ram hoard is difficult 
because there are only so many things 
to check for. The EXP-8000+ passes all 
the tests. 



unplugged the second floppy. Then I 
decided to take one chance. 1 left my 
hard drive plugged in, which I knew 
sucked a little bit of power from the 
Amiga's PSU. but not a lot. 

This time when I ran Pro Page and 
Digi-Paint 3 they both behaved 
themselves. I had found the limit. But 
your PSU may not be as powerful as 
mine. If you're considering the EXP- 



easy go 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1900 91 



Bai's&Pipes 1.8d @ 19 89 Blue Ribbon Bakery, Inc. Quantize 




B 



Melody 

Accent D 
Bass 

Di'un 
CounterB 
Echo Hor 

Stl'UM 

Track 7 
Track 3 
Track 9 



14-IP-l-H 



ncnra 



icirara^oca 



Never 

mind 

the 



Bars Br Pipes 
hns a quantiser. 
This tidies up 
the notes in 
your random 
composition 
and will 
hopefully make 
it sound more 
musical 



ORED with life in the computer 
music world? Tired of the same 
old sequencing grind? Stuck in a 
groove, repeating the same old 
patterns, over and over again? 

Well, friend, then there's only one 
answer for you - a random pattern 
generator. 

The most powerful is M by 
Intelligent Music. Easy to use with 
loads of sensible icons, it can cope 
with four Midi channels. These can be 
used to input either single notes 
(monophonic) or combinations of 
notes (polyphonic) which M turns into 
the basis for its pattern. The result is 
only pseduo-random; M allows users a 
variety of methods which alter the 
themes within the source material. 

Musical parameters that can be 
randomised include aspects of a 
phrase, such as note order, key 
velocity, transposition, note density, 
tempo and rhythm. These get changed 
within user defined parameters. 

A risk of working with any random 
pattern generator is that quite quickly 
your material can turn into noisy 
gibberish. This is not the case with M. 
Because its design is musical, its 




Dr aw Edit k-MMifrMJan Project Options 
Library 1 




Even if you are 
tone deaf, there is 
software for the 
Amiga which will 
let you compose 
pitch perfect music 
in any style you like. 
Dean Friedman 
sheds a little light 



With Instant Music you can't hit a wrong 
note - all you do is move the mouse up and 
down and concern yourself with pretty 
patterns on the screen 



92 AMIGA COMPUTING lime 1990 



MUSIC 



output winds up being musical. 

As with any random pattern 
generator, you still have to separate 
the wheat from the chaff, but M helps 
to minimise the trash and maximise 
the music. A dance track bass line, a 
percolating synth pop pattern or an 
ethereal new age texture are just some 
of the musical idioms that can be 
explored using this approach. 

You're still responsible for the 
music. And the patterns still evolve 
from your ideas. It's just that the 
computer serves as a quick- thinking 
backing musician with great time and 
perfect pitch who's happy to let you 
bounce your ideas off him. 

ANOTHER exciting random 
pattern generator is Laurie 
Spiegel's Music Mouse. A unique 
piece of software that turns your 
mouse into a musical instrument. 

With a colourful control screen 
consisting of four keyboards outlining 
a rectangular grid, Music Mouse uses 
the gestures and movements of your 
pointer to trigger four channels of 
Midi or internal sampled musical 
events. The sound each action creates 
can be shaped by a user defined 
harmonic template. 

So if you set up a five note scale all 
mouse movements would trigger 
phrases which would lie harmonically 
within that defined scale. Other user 



Concordant contacts 



M Intelligent Music, 116 North Lake 

Avenue, Albany, NY 12206, USA (Tel 

0101-518-434-4110) 

Music Mouse Dr T's Music Software 

Inc, 220 Boylston Street, Suite 206, 

Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 (Tel 0101- 

617-244-6964) 

Instant Music Electronic Arts, Langley 

Business Centre, 11-49 Station Road, 

Langley, SL3 8YN (Tel 0753 49442) 

Music X Microillusions (Europe) Ltd, 



Brooklands, New Road, St Ives, 

Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE17 

4BG (Tel 0480 496497) 

Bars & Pipes Blue Ribbon Bakery Inc, 

1248 Clairmont Road, Suite 3D, 

Decatur, GA 330, USA (Tel 0101-404- 

377-1514) 

Dr T's KCS Dr T's Music Software 

Inc, 220 Boylston Street, Suite 206, 

Chestnut Hill, MA 02167 (Tel 0101- 

617-244-6964) 



variables include randomises, 
arppegiating, selectable voice leading, 
tempo, and display modes. 

With only the briefest familiarity 
with the program, anyone can generate 
interesting musical textures and 
phrases. Instead of having to bother 
worrying about the correct fingering of 
your instrument or whether you're 
playing the right accidentals over the 
next change, you're allowed the 
freedom to concentrate on other, 
equally important aspects of the 
music, like phrasing, the contoured 
shape of a musical line and the 
subtleties of gesture. 

INSTANT MUSIC from Electronic 
Arts was written by Bob Campbell. 
Similar in some respects to Music 



[HUSIC-X Sequence: Panpipes & Vibe 



BAR EDITOR 




In Music-X 
you can choose 
to have the 
velocities of 
note events 
changed by 
adding a 
random offset 
to each 



c> Repeat 



: 28 B8S62. 83,678 



■ ■PAUSE ►pwy I 



jV/'s beauty lies in 

the ease with 

which you are 

able to create 

interesting and 

useful musiccd 

phrases from even 

the simplest of 

source material 



TINE KH I TYPlNOTEiWX , DUR J™« •■ 



a a 8K 

IZ 1(* ON 

?A 18 rtN 

■J6 16 ON 

.-., 1" on 

(, 1H ON 

24 1.8 OK 

?A 18 ON 

36 18 ON 

12 18 OH 

\?, LH OH 

1.2 18 OH 

Kfl 18 OH 



3 Text Hap 

1<1 •:,<■! Backup 

9 Pi'int 
IB Step Tii- 



• A 


- » a 3 is si s 

- 73 21 g 18 ON ] 


2 97 a L 

1.?? lit 




i miiii 





Mouse, it lets you define a range of 
notes and rhythms over which you are 
free to improvise using the mouse. All 
pitches are forced into a harmonic 
progression - you can't hit a wrong 
note. 

The display contains no notes, 
staves or barlines, only large colourful 
rectangles that rise and fall with the 
pitch. 

It doesn't let you stretch out as 
readily as M or Music Mouse; its basic 
orientation is somewhat more 
conventional, with fewer randomising 
parameters. And yet, just as is the case 
with the other two. Instant Music 
presents you with a totally new way of 
visualising melody and voice leading, 
and that's an accomplishment that 
shouldn't be overlooked. 

Random pattern generators have 
begun finding their way into 
conventional high end music 
sequencers. The three newest are 
Music X, Bars & Pipes and the latest 
version of Dr T's Keyboard Controlled 
Sequencer (KCS) contain an 
assortment of randomising 
algorhythmic tools. 

Don't be afraid to experiment with 
these tools — that's precisely what they 
were designed for. And, more 
importantly, don't be afraid to have 
fun with them. Because that's what's 
so neat about them all, they really are 
fun to use. You are still ultimately 
responsible for whether or not the end 
product is musical. 

What's most appealing about these 
kinds of programs is that they force 
you to think about music in a very 
different way. Random pattern 
generating is one of those rare 
instances in which the computer 
becomes an almost equal partner in 
the creative process. 

And the best thing is, you don't 
have to share any songwriting 
royalties with them. 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 93 




ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND DELIVERY 

Same day despatch whenever possible. Express Courier delivery £5.00 extra. 
MAIL ORDER DEPARTMENT 



■RETAIL SHOWROOMS 



63 Bridge Street 

Evesham 

Worcs WR11 4SF 

•S 0386-765180 

Open Mon -Sal. 3.00 -5.30 



5 Gllsson Road 
Cambridge CB1 2HA 

^0223-323898 
Open Mon - Sal , 9.00 ■ 5.30 
Specialist Education Centra 



1762 Pershore Road 

Cotterldge 
Birmingham B30 3BH 

■ff 021 -458 4564 
Opan Mon- Sal. 9.00 - 5.30 



Unit 



— 



9 St Richards Rd, Evesham, Worcs WR11 6XJ 
Call us now on ©0386-765500 



8 lines. OpBnMon-Sal, 9.OO-S.30. Fax:0386-765354 
Technical support (opan Mon-Fri, 9.30-5.30I : 0386-40303 



Send an Order with Cheque, Postal 
Order or ACCESS/VISA card details 



Government. Education A PLC orders welcome 

All producu covered by 12 Monihi Warramy 

All goodi lubject lt> availability. E.&O.E. 



Buy with confidence from one of the longest established companies in their field, with a reputation for good service and prices. We have invested heavily 
in a computer system to enable our Telesales staff to provide up-to-the-minute stock information, coupled with highly efficient order processing. Our fully 
equipped Workshop enables us to carry out almost any repair on our premises. We feel sure that you won't be disappointed if you choose Evesham Micros. 



AMIGA 500 
LOW COST 
RAM UPGRADE 



ONLY £55.00 «* 



512K RANI/CLOCK EXPANSION FEATURES : 



& Direct replacement for the A501 expansion 

•& Convenient On / Off Memory Switch 

£ Auto-recharging battery backed Real-time Clock 

& Compact unit size : Ultra-neat design 

& Uses only 4 D-RAMs for High Reliability 

& Low power consumption 



RAM expansion without clock, only ... £49.00 



3.5" EXTERNAL DRIVES 

using Teac / Citizen drive mechanisms 




• Suits Amiga 500 or Amiga 1000 

• Teac / Citizen drive mechanism 

• On / Off switch on rear of drive 

• Throughport connector 

• 880K Formatted capacity 

• Slimline design 

• Very quiet 

• Long cable for location either 
side of computer 

• Full 12 months guarantee 



Superb low price! 

£64.95 

Including VAT 
and delivery 




All Amiga 500 Packages Include Karate Kid II Jaws 

the following 11 additional leatherneck Detains 

software lilies supplied by us : Battle Squadron High Steel 



Better Dead than Alien 
Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix 
Night Walk 



Super Huey 
Gold runner 



AMIGA 

SPECIAL 

DEALS 



Amiga 500 51 2K Flight of Fantasy pack includes 4 software titles and TV modulator E379.00 

Amiga 500 512K Batpack includes 4 software titles and TV modulator £379.00 

Amiga 500 1Mb Batpack (OS F.O.F. Pack) features our 1 Mb RAM Upgrade fitted £419.00 

Amiga 500 Batpack (OR F.O.F. Pack) with Drive includes our 3.5" External Drive £439.00 

Amiga 500 1Mb Batpack (OR F.O.F. Pack) with Drive 

features our 1Mb Memory Upgrade plus 2nd 3.5" External Drive £479.00 

Amiga B2000 Pack includes XT Bridge Board and Commodore 1084D Colour Monitor £1199.00 

Amiga B2000 32Mb Pack offer as above; Includes 32Mb Western Digital Rlecard fitted £1438.00 

MiniGEN Genlock Adapter E9S.00 

Philips CMB833 colour monitor inccable £259.00 ! 

Contriver Hi-Res replacement Mouse package ... £22.95 I 
Amiga 500 dust cover £ 4.95 j 



External 5.25" 40/60 track switchable drive £ 114.95 

Omega Projects MIDI Interface £29.95 

Vortex System 2000 40Mb Hard Disk £499.00 

Vtdi-Amiga including Vidi-Chrome £110.00 



CBM A590 HARD DRIVE 



Good quality 20Mb Hard Disk from 
Commodore, including Its own PSU. 
Features sockets for up to 2Mb of 
FAST RAM expansion (see below). 
80ms Access time, with up to 
2.4Mb/sec transfer rate. Will autoboot 
when used with Kickstart 1.3. 
Includes its own built-in coaling fan. 



only £369.00 



A590 512K RAM Upgrade kit £36.00 

A590 1Mb RAM Upgrade kit £70.00 

A590 2Mb RAM Upgrade kit £135.00 

RAH upgrades tiled Ires when bought with A590. 



AH prices include VAT/delivery & cable 





We use ana recommend star pnn 
because they oiler an unbeatable com- 
bination ol features, prim quality, reliabil- 
ity and value. When buying, please note 
we are now offering i2-monih on-site 
maintenance contracts for C5.75 extra. 



A-MAX 

MACINTOSH EMULATOR 



Enables Apple Mac and (vtac Plus emulation on 
the Amiga. Cartridge includes socket for connec- 
tion of Mac Floppy Drive so that Mac disks can 
be read in clreclly. Compatibly with all current 
versions of SystBm. Versions available with or 
without Macintosh I28K HOMS (reo,wred}. 

Without 2 X Mac 126K ROMS £129.00 

WfTH 2 x Mac 128K ROMS £249.00 



5.25" External Drive 



Our high quality 5. 25" drive is capable ol 
a number of configurations including 40 
or 80 tracks (360/720K lormat). Colour 
matched to the Amiga, quiet in operation, 
and includes a throughport connector. 

f 0-j| '"«fl A "Qc" Including VAT I 
Mil I 4.93 & delivery 



Hugely successful 9 pin printer, the Star 
LC10 provides 4 NLQ lonls (96 print 
combinations) at 36cps and 144cps drart. 
Includes 4K butter and I BM/parallel inter- 
face, front panel operation, plus paper 
parking, allowing single sheets to be used 
without removing tractor paper. 



Only £159.00 

Colour version also available. 

Only £209.00 

Prices Include 2 extra 
black ribbons tree of charge. 



Star LC24-10 multifont 24pin printer, super low price £239.00 

Star LC24-15 wide carriage version of LC24-10, 200/67cps £409.00 

Star LC15 wide carriage version ol LC10. 180/45cps £329.00 

Star LC-10 Mk.ll faster version of LC10, 180/45 cps £199.00 

OlivBtti DM1 00S 9-pin 10" printer 2D0/30 cps inc. 1 year onsile warranty I .... E129.9S 

Panasonic KXP1081 reliable + sturdy 9pln 10" prfnler 120/24 cps £159.00 

Panasonic KXP1180 super new feature-packed multifont 9pin 11" E1 79.00 

Panasonic KXP1 1 24 new good specification multifont 24 pin 11" £259.00 

Panasonic KXP1624 wide carriage version of KXP1124 £399.00 

Epson LX400 (was LX800) 10' 180/25 cps £179.00 

Epson LQ5S0 good 24pin 150/50cps £349.00 

Epson LQ400 new 24 pin 180/60 cps with 8k bulfar £229.00 



PYE 15" FST 

TV/Monitor 

(MODEL 2325) 



WHh Its dedicated monitor 
Input, this model combines 
the advantages of a high 
quality medium resolution 
monitor with the convenience 
of remote control Teletext TV - 
at an excellent low price I 

£249.00 

I includes VAT, delivery 
I and computer 
%. connection load 




SHORTIES 



An apple 
a day... 



Nic Veitch investigates a 

utility that lets you read 

and write Mac discs 



EVERYONE would probably 
agree that the Amiga is a 
wonderful machine, but there can 
be times you want to use some 
other, more dedicated, equipment. 
This doesn't mean the Amiga is in 
any way inferior, just that there is 
an establishment for computers. 

Just as going to Oxford gives you 
a bettor chance of joining the BBC, 
being a 386AT gives you a better 
chance of finding decent accounts 
software. 

The problem with this 
establishment is that it even 
stretches to disc formats and the 
way that information is stored on a 
floppy drive. PCs and STs aren't 
much of a problem because their 
3,5in drives are mechanically 
similar to the Amiga's, 

The solution to data transfer in 
these cases is a simple matter of 
some cunning software to access 
the disc in a different way, like 
Dos-2-Dos or CrossDos. This is not 
too difficult, after all about 90 per 
cent of games come on discs 
formatted in a different way to 
AmigaDos. 

Tbe real problem comes when 
you want to talk to a Macintosh. 
Apple drives are weird. Really 
weird. Instead of simply spinning 
the disc and moving the heads in 
and out, Apple decided that it 
could get more on its discs if they 
rotated at different speeds, 
depending how far from the centre 
the head was. 

Whether or not this was a good 
idea is open to question, but it 
certainly made the drives more 
complicated. It also had the side 
effect that vou could read "normal" 



discs with a Mac drive, but not 
vice-versa. 

Mac-2-Dos doesn't solve this 
problem, but il does allow you to 
attach a Mac drive, single or 
double-sided, to your Amiga. A 

SOMETHING which promises 
to make programming easier 
must ho worth a look. At least, 
that's what Mirage Studio is hoping 
with the Mk II release of its 
ToolBox editing software. 

Mirage reasons that because 
most language compilers and 
assemblers concentrate on the 
generation of code instead of the 
ease of use of the editor, why not 
produce a stand-alone text editor 
which goes completely OTT in the 
flexible stakes? 

Flexible is not the word to 
describe ToolBox. Neither does the 
phrase "very flexible indeed" get 
any closer. The words you need are 
"more flexible than you could 
possibly want". 

Imagine you know a program- 
mer who has written a text editor 
and has agreed to incorporate any 
features you suggest. Anything at 
all What do you want in the pull- 
down menus? No problem, mate. 
You want to be able to compile and 
link a C program from it? Wee 
buns. Thirty-two files open at once 
good enough for you? Okey-dokey. 

Now you're getting the general 
picture. The only draw-back is that 
you are the programmer, so you 
must customise the system to your 
own requirements. To do this you 
must edit the ToolBox system 
configuration file - a programming 



small adaptor connects between 
the Mac drive and the drive socket 
on the back of the Amy. The drive 
will draw power from the Amiga, 
but not much more than a normal 
external drive. 

You can still chain drives as 
long as the Mac is the last in the 
chain, but watch how much power 
you are drawing, 

AmigaDos won't recognise your 
latest addition, but the Mac-2-Dos 
software will. It looks just like a 
disc management front end, like 
SID for instance, with the 
exception that the right-hand panel 
lists files on the Mac drive. The 
drive will be treated as one of the 
family and you can format, verify 
and rename Mac discs as though 
they were sensible. 

The software will convert Ascit 
files, pure binary, MacBinary, IFF- 
MacPaint and even Postscript PS 
and EPS files, though at present 
bitmaps are not converted. Default 




An addition to your 
Amiga not a take-mmv 



tools and icons can be attached if 
required. 

The manual is exhaustive and 
enlightening, especially if you 
know little of filetypes on the Mac 
or the Amiga. 

Mac-2-Dos has all the facilities 
of Dos-2-Dos and more, but with a 
friendly interface. With the 
exception of bitmap conversion, 
there is nothing left out that you 
would ever miss. More details from 
Central Coast Software, 424 Vista 
Avenue. Golden, Colorado 80401, 
USA (Tel 0101-303-526-1030). 



An editor for 
all occasions 



John Kennedy 
checks out a 
program editor 
that can be 
configured to 
your exact 
specification 

language in its own right. 

Yup. you code your own 
features into a language that's half 
C, half Pascal. This approach 
makes some neat things possible, 
such as the C code option. By 




Edit more files than you 
have fingers to type uith 



pressing Ctrl-C the editor will 
expand any abbreviations of C 
words into their full form, 
complete with braces and 
indentation. This can easily be 
changed to allow for Pascal or 
assembler statements. Hoopy, 

Toolbox is mounted as a device 
instead of a simple run-of-the-mill 
program. This means text can be 
inserted and removed by other 
programs running in the multi- 
tasking environment. Hence 
compilers and linkers can extract 
source and produce error messages 
all from within the ToolBox editor. 

This is a tool for programmers. 
You need to be a programmer to 
understand it and you need to be a 
programmer to customise it. 

Apart from some slightly 
worrying moments when it gurued, 
I can recommend ToolBox to 
anyone trying to improve their 
existing coding set-up. It's only 
£35, and even if you never use the 
editor the customising language 
will keep you busy for hours. 



Pdom PD Amiga Software Pdom PD Amiga Software 




Graphics 

AMP1: Home Business Pack, RIM the 
relational database and HyperBase 
database, UEdit the word processor which 
includes builtin help and tutorials, spell 
checkers, and VisiCalc the excellent 
spreadsheet. All auto loading. 

A 3 disk pack for only £7.50! 



AMP3 Graphics Pack 1 - Amiga MCAD 
excellent CAD package, VDraw brilliant 
painting program, Ray Tracer Generator, 
An object- orientated drawing package, 
11*1-* to pieces jigsaw program, ROT 3D 
drawing program, lxiads of utilities. 
A 3 disk pack for only £7.50! 




AMP21 Graphics 
Pack 2 - Mandelbrot 
Explorer, DBW 
Render a Ray 
Tracing utility, 
ST21IT picture 
converter, HAM2ITF 
picture converter. 
Excellent value! 
A 3 disk pack for 
only £7.50. 



APDC 15 - Icon 

utilities: full of icon 
files and creators. 

AMICUS 22 - 

Printer Driver 
Generator V2.3. 



FAUG 67 - Disk X APDC 18 - Floppy 




V2.0 the sector 
editor, Hand Shake 
Vl.06b a VT100 
terminal emulator, 
Pack It a whole disk 
compressor. 

FFISH 158 - 

DiskX SectorEdit, 
MSDOS Reads 
MSDOS or ST 
format into RAM:. 
FFISH 243 - No 
Click stops the disk 
drive clicking if no 
disk present. Pass 



Disk Utils: Quick 
Copy, Disk Mapper, 
Disk Salvage, Virus 
Check, System Utils: 
Blitz, text editor, 
TimeSet, ACalc a 
calculator, Amiga 
Monitor, MeM Grab 
fast memory grabber. 
DirectoryM aster. 
A must get disk for 
your Amiga PD. 
collection! Excellent. 

FFISH 244 - Boot 

Intro you specify 



Application 

FAUG 41 - Amiga 

Arc VQ.2 compatible 
with ARC V5.0. 

PDOM93 - ARP 

VI. 3 Amiga DOS 
Replacement Project. 

FFISH 58 - 

ASDG a RAM disk 
that survives reset, 
Big View displays 
any size 1IT picture, 
EGraph creates 
graphs from X,Y pair 
text files. NewZap 
disk sector editor. 
FFISH 188 - Boot 
Intro Vl.O displays a 



FAUG 50 - Dir 

Util VI the disk 
manager. 

PDOM 59 - 

Ameteur Radio 
Disk: disk full of 
HAM utilities. 

FFISH 157- 

Xlcon V2.01 allows 
you to call up scripts 
containing CL1 
commands from an 
icon. 



Utility 

FFISH253- 

Elements a display of 
the periodic table. 
FFISH258 
BACKUP allows you 
to backup anything, 
anywhere! 



Word you specify the The headline text of 

password for your U P» ** characters 

system security. *"• ■*<= *^*K «* SCrollm S ■? d a suU 

Pco P yV2.0the ofupto300. 

excellent disk copier. 

PDOM 62 - The Public Dominator 

Anti Virus Disk: Virus X V4.0, VCheck 

V12 (for memory), VCheck V1.9 (for 

disk drives), Zero Virus V1.3 the fully 

integrated virus detector and killer. Also 

Boot Block Champion the utility. 



choice at boot up. 

PDOM 86 - The 

Memory Expansions 
demo Nol. 




PDOM 65 and 66 

- Red Sector Mega 
Demo. THE best 
demo on the Amiga! 
A 2 disk demo with 
the best sounds and 
graphics! A must! 



Most of the disks in this advert 
actually contain more than is 
listed, for details of the service 
and a free copy of the 56 page 
catalogue send a Stamped 
S.A.E. (If you are ordering you 
will get the latest catalogue). 



PD Disk Prices: 1 to 5 disks 

are £3.00 each, 6 to 10 disks 

are £2.75 each and 11 or more 

disks are £2.50 each! 

Blank disks : 10- £7 .00, 

50-£33.00. 

Disk cleaning kits - £2.50. 




Demos 



PDOM 87 - The 

Memory Expansions 
demo 2. Both 
Require 1MB RAM. 

PDOM 73, 74 and 

76: The Star Trek 
Dry Dock Demo, 
Starship Enterprise 
demo and the Star 
Trek Shuttle demo. 
Amazing graphics. 





Games 




PDOM 83 - Space 
ACE Demo an 
excellent demo of the 
game with fabulous 
animation and 
incredible sampled 
sounds! 



AMP8 - Games 
Pack 1 - Cluedo, 
Klondike, Canfield, 
Cribbge, Backgam- 
mon, Yahzee, Missle 
Command, 3D 
Breakout, Empire, 
Gravity Wars, Hanoi, 
Hockey, Jackland, 
Othello Master, Pac- 
man, plus loads of 
other brilliant games. 
Amazing value! 

A 3 disk pack £7.50! 

AMP22 - Games 
Pack 2 Escape from 
Jovi V3, Monopoly, 
Amoeba Space 
Invaders, Cosmo 
Roids, StoneAge, 
Back Gammon, 
Mastermind, Reversi, 
Black Jack, YachtC, 
Daleks plus loads of 
other brilliant games. 

Amazing Value! 

3 disks for £7 .50! 

PDOM90 - Tennis! 

excellent tennis 
action game, fully 
working. 

PDOM79, 80 + 81 

the StarTrek game! 
Abrilliant three disk 
graphics game! 
Requires 1MB RAM. 



All prices are fully inclusive. To order 
please send a cheque or postal order 
payable to Pdom PD Amiga or 
Access & Visa credit card details to: 
Pdom PD Amiga , 
1 Bartholomew Road, 
Bishop's Stortford, 
Hertfordshire, CM23 3TR 
Telephone 0279 757692. 



96 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




a 




SOUND 











Sound sampling Hardware and SOFTWARE for the AMIGA 
jf0Ct ured in * he 

WHAT IS MASTER SOUND? * 

MASTER SOUND is a low cost, high quality sound sampler tor the AMll&A. range of computers 
featuring advanced'' Sampling/Editing/Sequencing software. MASTER SOU^D enables you to 
record sounds trom devices such as Personal Cassette or Compact Disc players ^to the AMIGA. 
When in rWCnmputcr, MASTER SOUND'S unique editor will enable you ro e*^ the sound in 
practicajh^nny way yuu can imagine. Once you have the sample how you wanftjt, you may 
incorporate it into your own Demo's or programs or use MASTER SOUND'S own^BUlLT IN 
sample^equencer to play back the sample along with a number of others too! •" \ 

Tt$ MASTER SOUND 

incorporates rhe following facilities; 

SAMPLE 

:ut 

f JFADE IN 

•Shrink 

' f&OAD 
t§COPE 

TWimpressive realtime Spectrum Analyser and Oscilloscope enable the user to monitor free. 
nt and volume with ease and hetfKvou to ensurp<fiat the sample quality is at its be&.$ 

TH| MASTER SOUND SEQUENCER* 

AMows'you to play hack samples in a sequence. Multiple samples can be held in memor^St once 
and sequences are as simple to tecord as tapping keys on the computer's keyboard. Onc&^ecorded, 
the Sequefifeer can save the samples and sequence file out onto disc so that the files can be used in 
your own demo's. / 

THE MASTER SOUND DEMO 

Allows you to play back your own sequenced sounds I'rom the sequencer,; while displaying IFF 
picture files. This is great for creating your own public domain demo Jiscs'-without having to be a 
computer r r <>E™mnif|i^^--^J^| C|:ioaEAL - 




* PLAY 

* COP 

* FADEOl 

* FILTER 

* SAV 

* FFT 



Volume, 
maunif) 
raw format 

VI METER 



3 . 

LOOP © 

WIPE - 

REVERSE 

TRIGGER 

IFF FORMAT 

SEQUENCER?"' 





MASTER SOUND EDITOR 



MICRODEAL 1990 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 




MASTER SOUND ORDER FORM 

Master Sound is £39.95 post & packing £1 (all prices inc V.A.T.) 

BY POST: with Cheque ■ Postal Order ■ or Credit Card 



BY PHONE 

WITH 

CREDIT CARDS 




(0726)68020 

Qlgj Si"' 



Name 

Address 

Postcode 

Credit Card Type Expiry Date . 

Number 



Please allow 28 days for delivery 
Send to: Microdeal PO Box 68 ■ St Austell ■ Cornwall - England ■ PL25 4YB 



The word is PROTEXT... 



Britain's favourite home-grown word processor 
has now been joined by Prodata, the Arnor database 



"Prolext - the real joy 
comes only from using it. 
I can say without any 
fear of contradiction it is 
the best word processor 
available at the price, in 
my view, at any price in 
fact." ALU 3/89 

"Prolext really is the best 
text processor on the 
Amiga" 

ST/AMIGA FORMAT 2/89 

"Wins hands down as the 
all round package" 

ST USER 8/88 

7 couldn't be more 
impressed" ... 

"So a big thanks to Amor 
for writing a brilliant 
piece of software" 

COMPUTER SHOPPER 



PROTEXT is now Britain's fastest selling Word 
Processor on Atari ST and Amiga computers, and is 
used by many of the leading computer publications 
and journalists, as well as thousands of businesses. 

Pretext's powerful features inciudc:- 

■ fast spell checker with 70000 word English dictionary. 

■ background printing. You can print and type at the same time. 

■ box manipuation. Columns can be moved around on the screen. 

• macro recording. Any key sequence can be assigned to a single key. 

■ use of foreign languages • headers, footers and footnotes 

• flexible configuration program • comprehensive set of printer drivers 

• Wysiwyg ('what you see is what you get') display shows bold, 

underlining and italics on the screen. 

• two file editing. You can edit two documents at the same time. 

• find and replace. Powerful search facility. 

• mail merging. The most comprehensive mail merging facilities 

available in any program. 

• 300 page manual with full index. 

• Swedish version also available. French and German coming soon. 

Protext was awarded the "Best Buy accolade in PC 
Buyers Guide, and was given a bottom line verdict of 
5 stars in What Personal Computer? 



"Protext is probably the 
most powerful word 
processor on the Atari 

ST" ST USER 4/88 



"the best value for money 
in word processing on the 
Amiga" AUI 9/89 



"Protext deserves to be 
the system by which all 
other word processors are 
judged ... Amor has given 
the market a superb 
product" 

YOUR COMPUrfiR 



"Amor's Protext 4 is just 
about unbeatable ... this 
really is an excellent 
program" PCAMSTRAD 



Protext ... truly the professional's choice 



Just some of the features of Prodata:- 

• Multiple indexes for accessing data 

• Full editing facilities for data 

• Comprehensive printing options 

• Importing and exporting 
. Undo changes facility 

• Powerful filtering feature 

• Easy to use layout design 

■ Password protection (5 levels) 

And of course, Prodata is 
compatible with Protext. 
Amiga owners please note that you 
need 1MB to run Prodata - see below 
for special price for Prodata plus A501 
(51 2K memory + clock expansion) 



fully 



PRODATA 

"Designing layouts is incredibly easy" YOUR AMIGA 



fHQtHHA ul.oa (c! Amor 1^33 Printer iPH f P50H Directory E:\PRDD 
Odci: nVQICE («F) Rets: 12 Scl: ALL Ujaut: 1 Index: D 15:21: 



BUT! 

H T IIH TJli nH !t l H 



Field I 
Field 5 
Field E 
Field 7 
Field 3 
Field 5 
Held IS 
Field 11 
Field 12 
Field 1] 
Field li 
Field IS 



Select field fijwe 

4 : Address 3 
Address I 
Address 5 
Del Addr 1 
Del Addr 2 
Del Addr 3 
Del Addr i 
del Addr 5 

ItietftBte 

F« 

Contact 

Invoi ce Huwaer 

EEHEIl 



Field 1J»: luintlta 1 
Field 18 : description 1 
Field !»! Unit Cnst 1 



Ids left - 13, El. Pes 
Variable nine; DATE 

liiJOEHiimaom 



(3,171. LfattlPiB. 



ible ILlinedrw lllttrs Ulel lildil IIBB1 imct: 



"Totally menu driven, Prodata 
must rank among the top database 
systems. . . " ST USER 1 2/89 

"Prodata is a very sophisticated 
database package, and at £79.95, it 
is most certainly worth the money" 
YOUR AMIGA 12/89 

"Amor have a quality product at a 
very reasonable price" 

POP COMP WEEKLY 19/10/89 



ORDER FORM - Send to: Arnor (STU), 61 1 Lincoln Road, Peterborough 
Please send me (indicate where applicable); PE1 3HA N ame 

Address 



PROTEXT v4.2 @ £99.95 

PRODATA @ £79.95 

PRODATA + A501 (Amiga) @ £179.95 

Further information Protext demo disc 

Computer: PC 5W" / PC 3V4" / Atari ST / Amiga 

I enclose Cheque / Postal order for £ , or debit my 

Access/Visa card no. Exp. _ 



Postcode 



ffe/eas/ng your micro's patent/a/. 



J rfH/WL 




Arnor (STUj, 611 Lincoln Road, Peterborough PE1 SNA. Tel: 0733 63909 (24 hrj Fax: 0733 67299 

All prices include VAT, postage and packing. Credit card orders will be despalched by return of post. If paying by cheque please allow 10-14 days for delivery. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN 




The Games Music Creator offers the ever 
patient user access to midi equipment 



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HHH« G-E 4888 8888 88HH 

SSPS ft"? ****» D-2 1HHB H-Z 181 

eae« is-e 4hhb ease 

i 8888 E-3 



KWften in C, 

MED is one 
of the few 
'trackers that 
actually obey 
Intuition's 
rules 




SoundTracker - the program that has spawned a hundred 
look-alikes. Imitation is the sincercst form of flattery? 



HAVE you ever wondered how 
games writers get the 
atmospheric times in them written? Or 
where all those demo tracks come 
from? Well, 99.999 per cent of them, 
and I think I'm being quite 
conservative here, are written with a 
utility called SoundTracker, or one of 
its many derivatives or lookalikes. 

There must be at least 20 of them, 
all slight variations on a theme. They 
all do one thing — they are a means of 
arranging - or sequencing - sampled 
sounds. 

The original SoundTracker has had 
a chequered career. It was released 
commercially by Karsten Obarski but 
has been "adopted" by a very large 
number of the under-the-counter 
culture. In the hands of these 
generally hateful people it has slowly 



slightly 



mutated to become something 
more useful. 

The name has mutated, too... the list 
gets longer daily as more crackers 
insert their names in the code and 
then claim to have written it. 

SoundTracker itself is still a 
commercial product so no reputable 
public domain collection should 
contain it. As ever, UGA has no 
qualms. 

Every 'tracker has two things in 
common with every other 'tracker — a 
block of four channel data lists, plus 
some means of loading and saving 
samples and music to and from disc. 
Hexadecimal numbers alter the way 
the sample is replayed, and in most 
cases samples only load if they can be 
found in something called a preset 
file. 



With its vast library 
of freely distributable 
software, the Amiga 
is the envy of all 
other computers. In 
the first of a new 
regular column, 
Stewart C. Russell 
tracks down the best 
of the public domain 
music sequencers 



If this doesn't sound very user- 
friendly, you're dead right. In general, 
'trackers make no concession to the 
non -programmer. They also don't co- 
exist with other programs very well - 
multi-tasking is a bad word to 
crackers. If you've never seen an 
Amiga guru before, you won't be able 
to say that after playing with 
SoundTracker. 

But with a little practice and a huge 
amount of patience you can stick a set 
of samples together in a way which 
vaguely approximates to music. 

The four track lists are composed of 
a musical note (C#, D, and so on), a 
hex number representing a sample in 
memory, and then four hex digits 
which are used for various effects like 
vibrato and arpeggio. This is a very 



AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 99 



cryptic way of doing things, but 
'trackers are really assembly hackers' 
tools - the way the numbers are 
handled is closer to, though several 
million times easier than, 
programming the sound chip directly. 

The more advanced 'trackers 
include features like IFF sample 
loading [SoundTracker accepts only 
raw data) and one of them even has 
minimal sampling software built in; 
you'll still need the hardware, though. 

Because SoundTracker stands on 
dodgy legal ground - and very dodgy 
programming ground - it can't be 
recommended. But if you must see it, 
the best ones so far are NoiseTracker 
and SoundTracker 2.4; UGA runs 
various concoctions on their Specials 
Disks. These aren't as well presented 
as most other PD discs, so much of the 
work is left to you. 

Andreas Tadic's Game Music 
Creator, on the other hand, is light- 
years better than the SoundTracker 
guru-alikes. It allows input from a 
Midi keyboard (with the right 
interface and leads) or from the Amiga 
keyboard, which is remapped as a two 
octave piano. It handles IFF and raw 
samples, has a simple file requester 
(for DFO: and DF1: only) and is much 
prettier and more robust than 



EVEN if the author of a 
shareware program is on 
the other side of the world, rest 
assured that The Mail will get 
through to him. If you have a Visa 
card, you can arrange for Visa to 
send him a cheque for you, which is 
the simplest and most problem-free 
way of doing things. But this trick is 
not open to everyone. 

International Money Orders are 
possibly the safest way of sending 
money abroad, but they are 
somewhat costly - at least £4, which 
is around two-thirds of $10, a 
popular shareware fee. For large fees 
— the highest Amiga one I've seen is 
still only $50 (about £30) - the IMO 
is your best bet. 

The method I use is cash. You 
heard me right, nothing provokes a 
quicker response from hard-up 
programmers than the folding green 
stuff (or brown stuff, or sort of 
salmony pink, or smallish with 
added Sibelius if you're Finnish). 



SoundTracker. 

GMC still has a huge tendency to 
guru. It won't let you back to 
AmigaDos to check up on discs, but it 
does gets rid of the annoying preset 
list and reliance on all discs being 
calledST-00orST-01,as 
SoundTracker does. 

The keyboard to piano remapping 
sometimes works, sometimes doesn't; 
it depends on how GMC is feeling at 
the time. If you have a midi keyboard 
and interface, or if you don't like 
SoundTracker, GMC is the one to go 
for. It's on UGA Special Disk #11. 
There's no mention of any shareware 
charges. 



PICK of the bunch in terms of 
general ease of use is MED 
version 1.12, hacked from solid C by 
Teijo Kinnunen of Finland. It can load 
SoundTracker and SoundFX songs, 
and reads IFF and raw samples. MED 
isn't quite as pretty as GMC - there's 
no file requester, for example -but 
runs from Workbench on a standard 
movable screen. 

It is terribly well behaved and has 
good instructions, something that no 
other 'tracker has. The only way I 
could crash MED was to load in, by 



accident of course, a very large text 
file. 

MED is ready to go on Fish #255, 
with both English and Finnish 
versions, three demo songs and 25 
sampled instruments. There's also a 
music player and a program to convert 
MED songs and samples into a vast 
amount of C source. 

Teijo Kinnunen is at this moment 
busy writing MED 1.20. The biggest 
new feature will undoubtedly be Midi 
support, thereby knocking GMC out of 
its unique position. The rewrite is a 
massive job and will take a long time 
to Finnish, though the current version 
is well Finnished and very usable. 
You want me to Finnish these terrible 
jokes? Well I'm not Finnished yet, so 
Suomi! 

When wading through masses of 
samples, all with strange names, it's 
useful to be able to hear a sample of 
the sample. A very neat little program 
to do this lives on TBAG #28. It is 
called, rather imaginatively I thought, 
Sound. 

Not merely will it play IFF sounds 
at any speed up to 65 KHz, it can loop 
them, play stereo samples (from 
Perfect Sound) and play any sample 
length, limited only by fast ram. 

It's amazing what you can find with 
Sound. One of my game discs has the 



Paying for 



Bureaux de Change are easy to find 
in most towns and cities. The usual 
charge is £1 or one per cent of the 
total cost, whichever is the larger, 
for each different currency bought. 

A few banks waive charges if you 
hold a student account with them. 
It's worth asking. I only asked after 
I'd already been hit for about a fiver 
in charges - the price of two Fish 
discs down the drain! 

Bear in mind that some countries 
only allow a certain amount of cash 
to be moved to and from the 
country, so always ask if you're 
unsure. 

Whatever way you decide to pay 
a shareware author, you'll have to 
get the cash or IMO abroad 
somehow. The wonderful Royal 



Mail, the employees of which my 
dog loves (in a white wine sauce) 
run an insured mail service around 
the world. An extra £1.55 on top of 
your normal letter post sees £150 
worth of insurance for one letter. 

Not all countries have a mail 
insurance agreement - the USA 
doesn't for instance - but if the 
letter is undelivered it will generally 
be returned, even if there's no 
insurance setup in the destination 
country. 

If tire letter is lost, you should be 
able to claim its value back. You 
will have to prove that the letter was 
worth what you claim, and the 
process is potentially rather slow. 

Always enclose a short note to the 
author of the shareware product 



100 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



PUBLIC DOMAIN 



Neighbours theme hidden away on if. 
It's OK, [ got over it. 

Sound was written by Richard Lee 
Stockton, and is freeware. 

Ah yes... before I go I'd better warn 
you that Keith Young, the author of 
the popular Access! comms 



shareware, is no longer traceable from 
the address in Goodview, Virginia 
given in release 1.42. The entire might 
of the US Mail couldn't find him 
either, so I'd check before sending him 
any money. If you track him down, 
please let me know. 



Shareware fees - 
are they legal? 



iECHNICAU.Y, public domain 
only refers lo works lo which 
the author has given up all 
commercial rights. Unless there's a 
statement in the software or its 
documentation to this effect, you 
can't assume that it is legal to own 
and use this software without the 
author's permission. 

Pure PD has a clearly defined 
legal position, the same cannot be 
said for shareware. Although both 
are freely redistributable - anyone 
may copy and spread them, as long 
as they don't charge for the software 



itself- shareware is software which 
the author has decided lo market, 
appointing the general public as 
distributors. 

Freeware is shareware for 
which the author charges nothing, 
but it is still the intellectual 
property of the author. 

All software is protected by 
international law. This is a vastly 
woolly subject, hut basically, if the 
program you use says something 
like "You owe me $10" either in the 
software or the documentation, you 
really do owe them the money. 



share 1 

stating your name and address 


ware 

notification of the next update, but 


(block capitals are best) what 


in many cases you will get a disc 


version you use, any problems you 


back with the latest version, together 


have with it, and perhaps a 


with a note from the author so 


suggestion about possible new 


deeply appreciative that it can cause 


features. 


blushing in sensitive types. 


Shareware authors are usually 


Shareware authors are nice 


very receptive to feedback - after all, 


humans and deserve to be treated as 


another name for shareware is User 


such. There may be a long delay 


Supported Software - so there's a 


before you get a reply, but at least 


high chance that your good idea 


you can use the software with a 


could be incorporated in future 


clear conscience. 


updates. 


Britons are often seen as very 


It takes a while for international 


poor payers. Out of the 1,100 or so 


mail to get around, so you should 


registered users of Timm Martin's 


only start to get very slightly 


SID utility, only about a dozen are 


worried if you have not heard horn 


from the UK. Why not do something 


the author after 10 weeks or so. 


to restore our tarnished reputation, 


Some cheap shareware never gets 


huh? And I don't mean send 


a reply, and others will only give 


Duraglit instead of cash. 



GAME 
MONTI 



DALEKS 



ORIGINALLY written for 
mainframes, Daleks (or 
Droids or Zombies or Robots) is 
possibly the simplest game ever 
authored. The graphics are 
especially simple, considering the 
game was written for character-only 
VT-52 terminals. 
The player is surrounded by 




malevolent Daleks who, for every 
move the player takes, move one 
step towards the player. The 
Daleks trash themselves if they run 
into one another and by 
manoeuvring cleverly the player can 
remove all the nasties just by 
hiding behind the trash heaps. 

There's also a one-shot sonic 
screwdriver to dismantle Daleks 
that are too close, plus a random 
teleport for that desperate moment 

When you consider that the 
Amiga version has no sound and 
only character graphics, the 
gameplay must be good. 

Good isn't the word; it transcends 
dental medication - that means it's 
very good indeed. I have spent (or 
wasted?) more time on this game 
than anything else on the Amiga. I 
find myself composing new 
strategies in my sleep. 

You'll find Daleks on TBAG #6. 
This is a very old disc so 
consequently Daleks needs 
NoFastMem to be run on an 
expanded machine. The game 
keeps a log of top scores, essential 
for peer-group bragging, and costs 
a shareware fee of but a single 
Hamilton, that being an American 
10 dollar bill. 



G.X.S. 

GEORGE THOMPSON SERVICES 

■5TTi*','M:J:l=M.HH=KM=« 
Presents Some Easter Surprises ! 



" GTS CLUB " GTS CLUB " GTS CLUB " GTS CLUB" 

•HAVE YOU JOINED THE LEADING PUBLIC DOMAIN CLUB FOR AMIGA 

ENTHUSIASTS? CONSIDER THE ADVANTAGES" 

• RECEIVE THE LATEST AND THE FINEST 

PD FROM THE U.S. A AND EUROPE 

* PAY LESS FOR HARDWARE AND 

SOFTWARE 

^* TALK TO 'AMIGA ONLY' ENTHUSIASTS 

r^\ Since the early days of the Amiga, 

r'George Thompson Services have made 

available to Amiga Owners all over the 

world the latest PD disks from the U.S.A. 

and Europe. Couriers deliver material 

each week to our offices where we first 

carefully check them for virus. They are 

then catalogued and released to the 

duplicating rooms for labelling and 

copying onto top quality branded TDK 

disks. As a member of this very Special 

Club you will not only benefit from lower 

PD Software prices but also discounts on 

specialized hardware. Send only £15.00 

annual subscription now and you'll receive by return: 

* Our Double Library Disk Pack detailing the contents of 100's of PD disks. 

* A 'Find me a Programme' disk for the Fish Library. 

+ The latest issue of JUMPDISK the best selling magazine on a disk in 

the world. 

* Two brand new disks from the TBAG I SACC Libraries. 

* £5.00 PD Discount Voucher for use against the purchase of 1 or more 

individual PD disks at £2.75 each. You can also choose one free! 

* A copy of our bi-monthly 'PD Newspaper'. 

To become a member of the "GTS CLUB" just send a cheque, P.O or 

place a credit card order using Access/Visa and we'll send this pack 

immediately! 




" NEW...NEW... "GRAPHICS MANAGEMENT"** £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

A Special 2 disk set that includes just about everything you'll need for 

managing and manipulating graphics on your Amiga. Many of these 

programmes are not readily available in the UK. 

"NEW...NEW... "VIDEO APPLICATIONS"" £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

To compliment TV Graphics' we've released two disks packed with 

utilities and programmes thai will give your productions the 'Professional' 

look. Invaluable for Genlock users. 

T.V GRAPHICS""' £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

Two disks that provide a variety of original Video Fonts and Backgrounds 

for Video Titling. As reviewed in Amiga Format and PD News. 

"NEW... NEW.. ."SOUND APPLICATIONS"" £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

This two disk set took months of research. Now available it includes a 

collection of top programmes that will enable you to manipulate sounds in 

programming, slide shows and much more 

""PD SPECTACULAR"" £4.99 (£4.49 Members) 

As reviewed in Amiga Format. Features over 40 top quality PD 

programmes. Andy Davidson crunched, squeezed and compressed them 

onto a single disk and then presented them in a way Chet Solace would 

be proud of. If you've never bought a PD disk, at least buy this. 

••"BREAKOUT CONSTRUCTION SET"" £4.99 (£4.49 Members) 

If you find 'Brickouf games addictive this disk won't disappoint you. The 

highlight is a game, written by Paul Stevens, with a complete design 

editor. Easy to use and fast to play and beautifully presented. As 

reviewed in Amiga Format. 

" "MEGA GAMES PACK VOL III"*' £19.99 (£17.99 Members) 

These 7 disks are packed full of the best games that have recently 

arrived on the PD scene in Germany and the U.S.A. The programmes 

include card, adventure, puzzle, role playing, action and platform games, 

A full review is published in the latest issue of 'PD News', 



"' NEWS — NEWS — NEWS '" NEWS 
Welcome to our first quarterly Amiga Format advertisement. The disks 
listed here are just a small selection of thousands of programmes in our 
collection. If you would like to know more about the world of PD for the 
Amiga just send 50NP for the latest copy of "Public Domain News", a bi- 
monthly newspaper dedicated to PD and Shareware programmes for the 
Amiga. Better still join the "GTS CLUB" and receive it free 1 



"' EASTER SPECIAL "" EASTER SPECIAL'" 
-SPACE TRILOGY - 

Conquer space, become rich, battle against all odds, in this special 4 disk 
pack. !t features the latest, incredible. 2 disk version of 'Star Trek', 1he 
excellent space trading/combat game 'Return to Earth' and the true test 

for reflexes. 'Blizzard' - as reviewed in Amiga Format. Interested? Just to 
convince you that it's the 'Bargain of the Month' we will include a free 

copy of 'Space Blitz' and a pair of 3D Specs for any order received before 
the end of May 1990. This FREE disk is packed with space games, Just 

beam £1 0.99 to us and we guarantee to ship a pack out to you within 1 Moon 

Hour! All above available separately at £3.00 per disk, 'Star Trek' is £5.99 mc 



""DOSLAB"" £14.99 (£12.99 Members) 

Learn how to use the CLI and AmigaDOS V1 .3 the easy way. No heavy 
manuals, just let the Amiga do the teaching with 2 interactive disks. 

""EDUCATION WITH THE AMIGA PT !"" £12.99 (£11.49 Members) 
The very best Educational programs we could find are featured in this 5 

disk set. Includes programmes on Evolution. World Geography. Metric 

Conversion, Languages. Elements. Forecasting the Weather and much 

more. As reviewed in Amiga User International 

" NEW...NEW... "LEARN AND PLAY" " £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

This 2 disk set features programmes for the very young. Ideal for children 

who are just starting to use the computer. Includes simple maths, a 

painting programme, word puzzles and much more. It's our first in the 

series "Family Computing" 

""DESIGN FACTORY"" £8.99 (£7.99 Members) 

A 3 disk set that includes the finest PD programs we could find for design 

work. If it's CAD, FRACTALS. MANDELBROT or PRODUCTION DESGN 

you are interested in, this pack is just what you are looking for. It now 

includes a ROOM'FURNITURE PLAN DESIGNER. 

" "THE WORLD OF ASTRONOMY"" £8.99 (£7.99 Members) 
Three disks for all Amiga Stargazers. You only need the telescope' 

""HOME BUSINESS PACK""* £19.99 (£17.99 Members) 

Our best selling 8 disk pack includes a Word Processor. Spell Checker. 

Database. Spreadsheet. Appointment Scheduler. Home and Business 

Accounts and much more. There is even a programme that will test your 

Amiga from top to bottom! A full review is in this months 'PD News'. 

""DTP ACCESSORIES VOL.1"" £5.99 (£5.49 Members) 

Two disks packed with Original Fonts, and the best selection of 

colour/bSw Clip Art we could find. 

""HAM RADIO SPECIAL"" £12,99 (£11.49 Members) 

Five disks packed with programmes related to HAM Radio, FAX/Coms. 

Includes text and pics. 

•""K/O THE VIRUS V2.0"" £3.99 (£3.49 Members) - NEW VERSION 
This disk features the most effective methods of detecting and removing 
the latest Amiga Virus. Full instructions on disk + "Icon Voucher" allowing 

you to update for only £1 .00 when V3.0 is released. 

** "HARD DISK SPECIAL"" £3.99 (£3.49 Members) - NEW VERSION 

This disk features the best Utilities we could find for managing your Hard 

Disk Drive. Includes a choice of Backup Programs, FixDisk and more. 

Now includes "Icon Voucher" for £1 .00 updates to latest version. 

"NEW.. .NEW,. ."AVOIDING THE CLI!"" £3,99 (3.49 Members) 

If you have no interest in the CLI or find it difficult to use. this disk is for 

you. Easy to use programmes that make file management, disk copying. 

arcing and de-arcing, locking files etc. a doddle. 

" "FAMOUS BOARD GAMES VOL 1"" £8.99 (£7.99 Members) 

. Three disks that include Amiga versions ol all the well known board 

games - Chess. Backgammon, Checkers, Othello, Sorry, Clue and more. 



Our Promise to you, the customer, is to provide top quality programmes, professionally presented, on the best media - 
TDK DS/DD branded disks - at value for money prices. We send all software in 'bubble envelopes' by first class post. 

QOur keyword is "Customer Service" with a smile. 
WE ARE GEORGE THOMPSON SERVICES. 
Our address is: DIPPEN, BRODICK, ARRAN, SCOTLAND, KA27 8RN. (077082) 234. 
Please send a cheque (with your Bank Card No. Expiry Date on reverse), a PO or just telephone your Access or Visa Card details to us before 1pm and we will 

despatch your order immediately 



102 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



You've never 
disk like tW 



* It adds, substracts, 
multiplies and 
divides 

* It works out VAT and 
other percentages 

* It has a powerful 
three-key memory 

* And it's solar 
powered! 

(But just don't put it in your computer!) 



and it comes 
* when 
you subscribe to 





COMPUTING 



ORDER FORM 



Valid to Please tick the 

June 30, 1 990 appropriate Box 

12 Months Subscription - UK (including free calculator disc) 

New 
With cover disc £29.95 p ] gS a2 

Without cover disc £24.95 9533 



a 



Renewal 

3584 
9565 



12 Months Subscription - outside UK 

Europe/Eire (wflfi cover disc) £34.95 

Rest of World - Airmail (with covar disc) £49.95 



New 



,9543 
9545 



Renewal 
9544 

9548 



Only subscription applications received by May 25 

Payment: please indicate method (•) 

| Cheqje'Eurochequa made payable to Interactive Publications Ltd 

E«piry 
Access/Maslercard/Eurocard'Bardaycard/Visa/Connoct D *e 



Name 



.Signed . 



Address 



Daytime telephone number in case of queries . 



Post Code 



Send to: Database Direct, FREEPOST, Ellesmere Port, 
South Wirral L65 3EB (No stamp needed if posted in UK) 



Order at any time of 
the day or night 



Orders by phone: 051-357 1 275 



Don't forge! to give your name, 
address and credit card number 



Orders by fax: 051 -357 2813 



Orders by MicroLink: MAG001 



* UK Only 



General Enquiries: 051 -357 2961 



If you prefer to have the 
magazine delivered with 
your morning paper, cut out 
this form and give it to your 
newsagent 



Dear newsagent 

Please reserve me 
every month a 
copy of 

Amiga Computing 



Name _ 

Address 




This is 
what the 
EuroLink 
package 
offers . . 

, Fully automatic 
operation - you 
don't need any 
prior knowledge 

A multi-speed 
modem - 2400, 
1200, 300 and 
1200/75 baud, 
offering MNP 
error correction 



, Easy-to-use free 
comms software 



FREE registration 
to MicroLink' 

... all for 
£254.95 2 

'valid until May 31 



THE MO 

The EuroLink modem is a robust and sophisticated device which turns data from your 
Amiga into signals which can be sent along a telephone line. It can handle speeds up to 
2400 baud - about 40 words a second. Although it has many powerful features, it is 
simplicity itself to use when combined with its accompanying software. Built into the 
Hayes-compatible modem is MNP error correction - your guarantee of a corruption-free 
connection. Its wide range of other features include - auto dial and auto answer, auto 
rediai, baud rate scanning, auto terminal baud rate sensing, 32-entry number store, 
internal loudspeaker, call progress monitor, bell tinkle supression, external plug mounted 
power supply unit and built-in 'watchdog' circuitry. 

•ESOFTW, 

Accompanying the modem is one of the Amiga's most popular and easiest to use 
telecommunications packages, Access!, which simplifies the connection to MicroLink. 
Two mouse selections and the rest is automatic. After that you can move freely around 
MicroLink, capture text on disc and send pre-prepared documents - all with a minimum 
of keystrokes. It can also be used to dial other services in addition to MicroLink. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH MICROLI 

With MicroLink any Amiga can be turned into a complete communications centre. 
Without any additional expenditure it becomes a telex machine, a fax machine, an 
electronic mail terminal. 

• You can use it to send a letter for next-day delivery to any address in Britain, send a 
telegram to anywhere in the world, or even send flowers without moving from your 
Amiga. 

• It's also a retrieval tool that lets you search out and store data from the world's 
leading electronic libraries. 

• It gives instant access to the credit status of many thousands of companies all over 
the UK... and it lets you embark on exciting adventures - in real time! - with like-minded 
enthusiasts in faraway places. 

• It keeps you up to date with the latest news, sport and weather. 




" *is=5 - 

mill ui 



YES - tftf? long-awaited breakthrough in 
data communications has finally arrived! 

Now you can use your Amiga It's all you need to become 

(plus phone) to talk to MicroLink rf of a very friendly and 

and other computers anywhere in — - - 

the UK - or all round the world* - helpful online community 

using the very latest in modem 
technology. 

Today there are hundreds of 
MicroLink telephone points 
throughout the British Isles. 
This means that the majority 
of subscribers access 
the service for the 
price of a local call. 



ORDER FORM 



Please send me a EuroLink modem with MNP error correction 
plus Amiga lead, power supply and free Comms software - 
all for the special offer price of £254.95 (incl. VAT) 



I am already a member ol MicroLink 



I am not a member ol MicroLink. Please send details 



I wish 10 pay by; 
Cheque/Eurocheque enclosed made payable to EuroLink 
Acrass/Maslercard/Eurocard'Barciaycard/Visa'Corinect 




'The EuroLink modem and its accompanying software 
can also be used to access other information services 
such as Telecom Gold and CompuServe, as well as 
innumerable other databases and bulletin boards in the 
UK and overseas. 



Daytime telephone number in { 



Send to: EuroLink, Europa House, Adllngton Park, Adlinglon, Macclesfield SK10 4NP 
PHONE ORDERS- 0625 S7SBSB. FAX ORDERS: 0625 379966 A 



THE 

WORLD'S 

LARGEST 

CHAIN 

OF 

AMIGA 
CENTRES 



MR 



DIAMOND'S 

EXECUTIVE 

Portfolio 



Southampton 
(0703) 232777 
Fax 232676 
London 01-597 8851 
Fax 590 8959 
Midlands 
(0926)312155 
Fax 883342 
Bristol (0272) 693545 
Fax 693223 
Eire 061376744 



DIAMOND DIRTY DOZEN 

ALL OUR AMIGA A500 PACKS CONTAIN MACHINES 
WITH THE FOLLOWING STANDARD FEATURES 



512KRAM 
1 Meg Disk Drive 
4096 Colours 
Multi Tasking 
Mouse 



Built-in Speech Synthesis 
Two Operation Manuals 
Operating System Disks 
All Appropriate Connecting 
Cables /- ' 



Naksha Mouse 
upgrade from 
A500 Mouse 

£24.95 

inc. VAT 



AMIGA 500, Batman the Movie, New. 

Zealand Story, F18 Interceptor, / 

Netherworld, Star Wars, Bambuzal,' 

Saint and Greavsie, Table Tennis, 

Clownomania, Paperboy, Mike Reid's Pub Quiz. BAAL. 

Menace, Bloodmoney, Ballistic, Deluxe Paint II, Microswitch 

Joystick, 10 Blank 3.5" Disks, Disk Library 

Case. Mouse Mat, Amiga 

Dust Cover, Tutorial Disk, TV 

Modulator and 23 PD 

Programs | NO VAT 




DIAMOND FLIGHT OF 
FANTASY 

ALL OUR AMIGA A500 PACKS CONTAIN MACHINES 
WITH THE FOLLOWING STANDARD FEATURES 

• Built-in Speech Synthesis 

• Two Operation Manuals 

• Operating System Disks 

• All Appropriate Connecting 
Cables 



• 512KRAM 

• 1 Meg Disk Drive 

• 4096 Colours 

• Multi Tasking 

• Mouse 



£399.00 



CLASS OF 
90'S PACK 

£499.00 



AMIGA 500, F-29 Retaliator, Rainbow 
Islands, Escape from the Planei of Robot 
Monsters, Netherworld, Star Wars. Bam- 
buzal, Saint and Greavsie, Table Tennis, 
^Clownomania, Paperboy, Mike Reid's Pub 
Quiz, BAAL, Menace, Bloodmonoy, Ballistic, 
Deluxe Paint II, Microswitch Joystick, 10 
Blank 3.5" Disks, Disk Library 
Case, Mouse Mat, Amiga Dust 
IM/~ V WAT Cover, Tutorial Disk. TV 

I NO V A I Modulator and 23 PD Programs 



£399.00 



DIAMOND F501: 

TWO YEAR WARRANTY 
BATTERY BACKED 
CLOCK/CALENDAR 
FREE UTILITIES DISK 
WORTH £49.95 
ON-OFF SWITCH 



£49.95 



INC VAT 

+ FREE DELIVERY 

ANYWHERE IN EUROPE 

(El. 50 FOR REST OF THE WORLD) 

£59.95 inc VAT with 
IT CAME FROM THE DESERT 



DIAMOND PACK 2 

If you thought our Diamond 
Pack 1 was good value just look 
at our Diamond Pack 2 

SAME AS PACK1 

BUT WITH 

PHILIPS COLOUR 

VISION MONITOR (U.K.) 

only £579.00 

INC VAT 



DIAMOND PACK 3 

SAME AS PACK 2 WITH 
PHILIPS VISION MONITOR 
BUT INCLUDES PHILIPS 
NMS1432 PRINTER 

ONLY £675.00 INC VAT 

DIAMOND PACK 4 

BATMAN A500 1 MEGABYTE 
OF MEMORY 

£399.00 INC VAT 



DIAMOND - THE NAME YOU CAN TRUST ZZZZ^^ 



Diamond Computer Systems Ltd 
1 14 Lodge Road, Southampton. 
Diamond Computer Systems Ltd, 
227, Filton Avenue, Bristol. 
LAN Computer Systems Ltd, 
1045 High road. Chadwell Heath, 
Romford. 

LHC Microsales, 121 Regents St.. 
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. 
Diamond Computer Systems Ltd, 
Balling, County Clare, S. Ireland. 



DIAMOND MUSIC PACKS 

Yamaha SH10 Keyboard, Midi 
Interface and all connecting 
leads and Sonix V.2 

£99.95 inc vat 
BATMAN MUSIC PACK! 

£429.00 INC VAT 



* SPECIAL * 

diamond drive, thru 
port on/off switch 

only £65.00 

INC VAT 

WITH 10 BLANK DISKS 

£69.00 INC VAT 



Your AMIGA 500 IS 
worth over £800! ! 

When you part exchange it for a B2000 with an autoboot hard disk! 

Phone or call in to a 
Diamond store for details! 



RENDALE 8802 

GENLOCK 
£179 inc VAT 

FLICKER FIXER 
£275 

8Mb RAM 

BOARD 

(2Mb pop) 

£275 

AMIGA 2090A 

Hard disk + controller 

card also Boot and Fast 

File for Amiga 2000 

£249 

A590 20Mb 
Hard disk with 

2Mb RAM 
£499 inc VAT 




47Mb Autoboot, Fast file System Hard 
Disk for B2000 - only 395 



IncVAl 
10 


HIGH QUALITY 3.5" 
BULK DISKS 


iNC vat 
....£7.00 


25 




£13.00 
£25.00 
£48.00 
£94.00 

K 


50 




100 




200 .... 






Add £4.95 for 80 capacity lockable bo 



CHIP SHOP PRICES 
NEW CHIPS ONLY 

A590 CHIPS 

0.5 MB 1 MB 2 MB 

£29.95 £59.75 £119.00 
Inc VAT Inc VAT Inc VAT 

A590 £319.00 

A590 2 MBYTE POPULATED 

£499 inc VAT! 

8UP BOARD CHIPS 

2MB 4MB 6 MB 8MB 
£109.00 £215.00 £319.00 £425.00 



8UP BOARD 



ONLY £160.00 



8UP BOARD 2MB 

POPULATED £275.00 



PRINTERS 

Al! printers in our range are dot matrix and include the 
following features... 

Standard Centronics parallel port for direct connection 
lo Amiga, PC's, ST. Archimedes etc. Tractor and fric- 
tion paper feeds. 

CITIZEN SWIFT-24 £249 

WITH COLOUR £259 

PANASONIC KXP-1 124 £199 

24-PIN D.MATHIX PRINTER 

OKIMATE20 £159 

24-PIN COLOUR THERMAL 
DOT MATRIX PRINTER 

STAR LC-10 MONO £119 

Multiple font options tram front panel, excellent paper 
handling C64/128 version available 

STAR LC-10 COLOUR £159 

Colour version of the popular LC1 0, allowing the effect 
of full colour on screen dumps (requires cotou I printer 
driving software). C64/128 version available 

STARLC-24-10 £199 

24 Pin version of the popular LC series with exceptional 
letter print quality. 

STAR XB 24-10 £439 

24 PIN COLOUR PRINTER 
(INCLUDES COLOUR OPTIONS) 



Diamond 
Configured Packs: 

AT System 

Amiga B2000 

AT Bridgeboard 

2090A 20Mb Autoboot HD 

Vision Colour Monitor 

£1395 

XT System 

Amiga B2000 

XT Bridgeboard 

2090A 20Mb Autoboot HD 

1084 Colour Monitor 

£1195 

Basic System 

Amiga B2000 

2090A 20Mb Autoboot HD 

Vision Colour Monitor 

£995 

Audio System 

Amiga B2000 + 2090A 

1084 Colour Monitor 

Music X & Midi Interface 

£1095 

Visual System 

Amiga B2000 + 2090A 

A2300 Genlock 

Deluxe Video 

£889 



COLOUR PIC 

Real Time 

Frame 

Grabber 

£349 



HITACHI 

CAMERA 

£149 



VIDI AMIGA 

+ CAMERA 

£239 



MONITORS 

PHILIPS COLOUR 
VISiON MONITOR 

£159.00 

PHILIPS 8833 (U.K.) 
COLOUR MONITOR WITH 
STEREO SOUND 
ONLY £199.00 

DIAMOND MULTISYNCH 

MONITOR 

ONLY £295.00 

COMMODORE 1084S 
MONITOR 

only £199.00 



ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT. COURIER £5, NEXT DAY SERVICE £10. 
E & OE. All prices correct at time of going to press and are subject to change without notice. 



Public Domain Software 
for the Amiga 



from £3 per disk all inclusive 

* Over 500 disks! 

* Membership not necessary 

* Fast Service 



We have one of the largest 

collections of PD software for the 

Amiga in the UK. 

We currently stock: 

OFISH 1-204 

O AMICUS 1-26 

O SLIPPED DISK 1-40 

OFAUG HOTMIX 1-75 

O PANORAMA 1-71 

O AUGE 1-25 

O T-BAG 1 -23 

All the above are £3 each + 1 FREE 
when you order 10 

2 catalogue disks available at £5 
which give details of the above 

collections 



HARDWARE: 

External Disk Drive £88.95 

Amiga A500 E360 

All prices are fully inclusive of 

VAT 

* JOIN THE CLUB! Interested in 

joining our user club? Write or 

phone lor details * 



Our own special selection 
£4.00 each 

o AP0L 1 6 CLI HELP 

Confused by CLI? This one's !cr you 
O APDL H LANGUAGES 

Lisp. Prolog, Logo, Forth 
O APDL/S AMIGA DISK DOCTOR 

Life swing programs! 
O APDL tU BEST ARCADE GAMES 
O APDL*15 BEST BOARD GAMES 

Backgammon, Othello. Yahuee etc. 
O APDL#17 BUSINESS COLLECTION 

Editor, Spreadsheet & Database 
O APDL #41 DATABASES 

Keep track of your data 
O APDL Ht ADVENTURES Vol Z 

Castle: A graphic adventure & several 

text adventures 
O APDL #43 C COMPILER ASSEMBLER AND 

LINKER 
O APDL #44 WORD PROCESSING 

Word Processor & Spellcheeker 
O APDL #45 PUZZLE & STRATEGY GAMES 
O APDL/48 MAGNIFICENT FORCE II 

20 Great Tunes 
O APDL #52 FRACTAL GENERATORS 
O APDL #53 UNKNOWN 5 DEW0S 

Superb eye-popping demos with great music 
O APDL #57 JUNGLE COMMAND 

Musical Invasion 3 
O APDL #58 CHET SOLACE SHAREWARE 

EXTRAVAGANZA. Some ol the best 

shareware programmes on easy-to-use 

menu driven disc 
O SPECIAL Startrek (1 MB| Superb PD game 

for those with 1 Mb. 3 discs E8.00 
Writ or phone for a FREE List 



THE AMIGA PD LIBRARY 

Dept. AMC, 72 Glencoe Road, Sheffield, S2 2SR 

PD Hotline 0742-750623 (9am-9pm) 




TEL: 0983 79 496 



ACCOUNTS 

Arena Int. Accounts 1MB 1 19.M 

Cashtflok ConlroSjr 39.79 

Casfibwk Combirtaton S9BD 

tte< Tot) audjet 34.95 

Home Accounts 23.52 

PlinHic Modules 39.79 

Person* Accounts Plus 29.90 

Personal Tax Planner „ . 349fi 

Small Buaness Xlra 1MB S9 93 

Systems Integrated 44.85 

BOOKS 

P BH c:. 

COMMUNICATIONS 

A Tans 69.92 

BSSPC 68.78 

KComm2 24.84 

COMPUTER AID ED DESIGN 

Design 3D 1MB 57.96 

Prolessional Draw 1MB 99.62 

t Cad Oes^ner J MB 79.61 

DATABASE MANAGERS 

Data Bilneve Pro 1 MB 1 79 86 

MaJshol Plus 37.95 

Microfiche Filer 49 91 

PfetJJU 57 96 

Race Horse Form Master 39 79 

Superrjase Professional 1MB .164.91 

Suoeroasfl Personal 39 79 

Suc-erbasa Personal 2 1MB 6279 

Wno What Wnen Where 2990 

0ESKT0P PUBLISHERS 

PigeSatlerJlMB 74 98 

Pagestiaam IMS 12995 

Protaswiil Pace 1 ,5MB 1 79 86 

EDUCATION 

GCSE Tutors .._ 24 84 

My Paint. _ ... 34 9S 

EDITORS 

CvgnusEd Prolessional 69.92 

ElUFHKt 

Ajilmagic EttiKW 1MB 5497 

Come Seller 1MB 3979 

Dun An Parts Vol. I ._ ...9J9 

Deluxe Paint 3 I UB 6486 

Delura«i»31W.B 7981 

Dirji Paim 3 _ 49.91 

ElanPertomer 44 65 

Impact Presentations 49.9t 

lijfits. Camera. A:lon 1MB 47.84 

Movie Setter _ 51.98 

Photon Paint 2 1 MB 57.96 



Pinnate 3S.87 

Professional Draw CI p Art 44 85 

Sculpt 3D XL 1MB 99B2 

SctilpUDPioMMB 329.82 

Sculpt Animate 4D Junior 84.87 

ire Director ...„ 39.79 

Turoo Silver _ 99.82 

Zoetrooe 1MB .._ 7981 

HARDWARE 
UASOflOlfjckslarlROM 

IMBMiniMajASOORAM 

3 .5' NEC Drive SwitcluTh-j . 
512K ASOO RAM CUm*Sy<i!CIi 
A Mai Mac Emylaloi No Rcms 
A4 Elat Bed Scanner . 
A593 20MB Hard Dis< Drive .... 

AM A.S. Sound Sampler 

Dioi View Gold 4 

MasferSound 

Midi Master Interface 

Minlgen Genlock 

Vidi Amiga PAL Difiitiser 

PACKAGES 

Appetizer 

Graphics Starter Kit . .. 

Home Office Kil 

Publishers Ctioica 

Starter Kit 

Tna Woms Pratjnum 



2990 
199(7 
.68 77 

69.92 
109 94 
459 77 
379.96 

77 74 
11983 

34.96 
. 34,96 
.99 32 

99 82 



FH0GRAMMING 

Altec C Professional 

Modufa 2 

Devpac2 

GFA BaiC Compiler 

GFA BaSJC Interpreter 

Hsoh Basic Carreer 

Lattice C 5 Complete 

SOUND ' 

Gefune Music Const. Kit. 

Instant Music .— ... 

Muse X 



... 2990 
. 54,97 
.99 82 

...68.77 
.59 80 

.129.95 

.109.94 
119,83 
...42.78 
28,98 
.,.,39.79 
... 57.96 
. 16997 

.52.90 
-22.77 
169.97 



Music X Junior 


39.93 


Studio Magic 

SPREADSHEETS 
Advantage . 


49.91 

79.81 


DGMc _ 


31.97 

67 85 


UTILITIES 

AmioaDOS Taoioox 


39.79 






ARex* Macro Interpreter 

Award Maier Plus 

BAD Dis<0plimser 


3196 
. 34 96 
...31.97 


BBC Emulator 

Calligrapnir font Designer 

CanDo Environmert; 

CrossOOS file Transfer ...... 


34.96 

64 86 

..109.94 
29.90 


Disk Maslei Housekeeper 
DOS 2 DOS f lie Transfer 


33 73 
.29.90 


Enhsux:ei 1.3 S/WUpgrade 

Face 2 Disk Cache 

KaraSibHeadFonls 

MAC 2 DOS File Transfer 
Maslerpiota Fonts (110!) 
Mavis Beacon Typing , . 

Proiect D Backup/Editor 

Suoertak 2 IVD Backup , .. 
UHracaidPlus 


14 72 
. .23.92 

4991 

69.92 
.. 129.95 

27 33 

31,97 

39 79 

69.92 


Wordoorfecl Library 


,,.89 93 






Voir Famly Tree Gen. 

woflgpnocEssoRs 

Kmdwords2 


34,96 


Ouline 

PenPj! 


2990 


Proton 


...64 66 


Transcript 


41.1:6 
...32.69 
.16491 



Richard Howe & Angela Hammetl 

Applied Research Kernel 

Curve FatmhDuse, Chile Green, Venfnor, P038 2LA, U.K. 

POSTAGE: UK Free. Europe £4, World £10 

CHEQUES: London Sterling Payable to A.R.K. please 

EXPO FIT 1 BFPQ : Remove U.K. V.A.T. (=Price/1 , 1 5) 

V.A.T.: All prices include U.K. VAT. at 15% 

PHD HE: Monday to Saturday 9.3FJ-6-30pm 

DESPATCH: Usually within 48 hours 

PRICES: Are subject to change 



OUR GUARANTEE 

SOFTWISE 

COMPUTER SOFTWARE PHONE/MAILORDER 



Will not charge credit card customers for goods until day of dispatch. 

We do not charge extra for phone orders, we will quote prices over 

the telephone, and send price list with every order if required - price 

list on request - large S.A.E. required. 

SDPool £1369 hanhoe. £1699 fcd Dieatra 

?&lesolJaTbsa E16S9 It otj ficm the Deser, E1999 XiSion2 

Afiaburner . £1693 Jaci NicHaus Goll £1699 Space WQuest 2 

Keep the Thief £16.99 

Kick ON £16.99 

UisuieSiTfl L3rry2 £2199 

leisueSialLiiry 



£1399 



Ataed Beast 

Austerlrtj £1699 

B of Pom £1699 

Batman the Mom £16 99 

fetterless £1699 

Betach Volley .. £1699 

BltKditych £1699 

Bomber £1999 

Cabal £1699 

Chase M0 £1699 

Continental Circus £13 99 

Cytettall £13 99 

Damocles , £1999 

Dai/ oi the Viper £1699 

DelmSUip Poker £13 99 

Douite Dragon £1399 

Dungeon Maslei [1 Meg) £19 99 

Dungeon Maslei .- 

Elvira £1999 

Elie £1399 

European Superliague £1399 



F 16 Comba! 
F29 Retaliate 

Future Wati 

GataxyFoice 

Ghosttusters2 

GfcuSiGiras 



.. .£1699 
£1699 
.£1699 
£1699 
£1699 
£1699 



LcenceloKill £1399 

LnreiLetOie £1399 

LostPatiol £1699 

Manhunts! £1999 

Meicotose Sooca £1699 

New Zealand Sloy E16J99 

Ncim & South £1699 

Onslaught £1699 

OpeialionThunderbct £13.99 

P47 £1639 

PofaQuest £1639 

Populus £1699 

PtWBrttirjnie £1639 

Guam £1699 

Rally Cross. £13.99 

Roox op £13.99 

Running Man £13.99 

Shadon of the Beast £2399 

Shinobi . £1399 

SimCityWaii £1939 



£1699 

£1699 

. . £1699 

Star Wats Tiioligy £1599 

Stat Car Ram . £1699 

Time 01 Lore £1699 

Tube-Outrun £1699 



iV:V 

Wings olFuiy. 



£1699 
£1399 



Indiana Jones (*dv| £1699 

[-(testation £1699 

Inferesptn £1699 



Gridiron 
Hard Driving . 
HorvJaBVE . 
Test Drive Duel 
TrrarJ2 



£1699 

£1199 
£1693 
£1699 
£1699 
E16S9 



BUSINESS SOFTWARE 



Hone Accounts £2599 

Personal Accounis Plus . £2899 
Small BusirvassAatwjnl £6999 

Small Bus Account Extra 

KComm! EI599 

KData £4?99 

Superbase Peisonal 2 £6699 

Fun School 6-67ovei EVunte 6 £1 6 99 

Orgicak: £34 99 

KSprrad2 £51.99 

PioleiV4 £6599 

Degas Elite 

First Word Plus .___ 

VIDI £14495 

DeluiPaini 3 £6899 

Kndwor(Js2 £4299 

Branded Disks 1 S" DcVDO Sony £999 

525'DS/DOIGK 
(48IPI)... £893 
UiiJnndBd Disb IS" DSBO. £749 

S2S-DSrTJD [699 



All prices correct ai time of going to press 

M ANY MOFIE SOFTWARE rrEMS MAILABLE. SEE OUR GUARANTEE 

All puces phone/mail ordei only, goods suPiM to avalaci Cy or release date, above pices incljde VAT and PSP u< o-.'y For Euopean 
press drviie by 1 1S * £200 PSPpef *era, games ony Mai I order, pvase make chetpiVFO payable la Softwtse, 41 Til* High 
Strut, IsrDiTawton, tttvin £129 2H6, Please allwlordnequeslo clear {5 »trt.ng Says) before pitxS teparhed 



0837 82846 

FOR PHONE ORDERS 



NEW-WIZARD'S GUIDE TO BASIC-NEW 

Uofilh* of r*Mirch and programming have gone Into developing thl* hlfihly effecUva and 
enjoyable way to learn BASIC. The whole concept la dealgned to help you learn mora 
qulchly and achieve Impressive result* In no time. Your confidence and skills will rise 
rapidly as you make your way through this course. The Wizard's BASIC Guide comes on two 
disks with a sophisticated electronic book - You can gel help In the form of text, moving 
demonstrations, graphics, sound for speech with Just the touch of a button. This is far better 
than any pap*r book and you can access It while you are working on any of the programs. 
The course starts at beginner level, and carefully rises to export level. You will l&am to 
master graphics, colour, sound, movement, speech, windows, menu*, data processing etc. 
Hundreds of example programs are Included. We have also Included a good number of 
addling and useful demo programs - e.g. speaking mastermind with animated head, an 
electronic address book, a fast moving racing car g*me, a synthesiser and many more. This 
Is a value packed package which will leave you with a wealth of knowledge and expertise. 
Excellent value -£12.95 

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO AMIGADOS 

This Is a new and affective way to take you from a beginner to and expert on AmtgaDOS. 
This highly popular package has now been updated to cover BOTH 1.2 and 1.3 versions. The 
package consists of a guidebook, a tutorial DISK, a crib card and FREE additional software 
which could cost you over £20 to buy elsewhere. This i* clear and well thought out guide to 
AmJgaDQS commands. The emphasis is on teaming through experience and doing - not 
|ust reading like most other books. It show* you how to set up your own boot disk with your 
own customised messages thai will boot In seconds (unlike worfcbonchl). It will show you 
how to make your Amiga Independent of the workbench disk - no more "Please insert 
workbench dl*k"» We include the new and Incredibly fast Lazer-Load picture loader so you 
can Include your own pictures (e.g, from DPaint) on your boot up sequBnca, The disc also 
includes a gallery of high quality pictures. We supply a password system which will prevent 
unwanted users from using your Amiga, Also, Included are several other high quality 
programs. Guide Book, disk, crlbcard etc. Only Cl2 + 95. 

MASTERPIECE 

*THE BEST PICTURES I HAVE EVER SEEN ON THE AMIGA" reported a recent reviewer. This 
package lakes you on a spectacular trip through the world of art We have selected many 
masterpieces from the world's art treasures and take you on a historical guided lour. Every 
picture Is of true quality and Is displayed using thousands of colours. To help you en|oy the 
world's heritage of an to the full we have Included comprehensive notes on each artist and 
painting. All the famous names are there - Leonardo Da Vinci, Monet, Renoir, Constable, 
Picasso and many, many more. Whether you are and art expert or know nothing at all about 
art, this is a wonderful way to appreciate the great paintings of the world (and appreciate the 
graphic capabilities of your Amiga as well). The package coma* with two disks packed full 
of pictures and Information. 
Excellent value - £12.95 

SALE PRJCE- This month only - MASTERPIECE ONLY E7.95 

UK P&P - FREE and by FIRST CLASS post 

Overseas orders welcome - Europeans please add SQp 

Outside Europe pleas« add £1.50 for Airmail 

AH payments in pounds sterling please. 

Cheques PC's lo: 

Wizard Software (Dept A.C.1) 20, Hadrian Drive, 
Redhills, Exeter, Devon, EX4 1SR 



108 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 




AVIDI 



SPECIAL 
OFFER 



Thanks to a breakthrough by Rombo 
Productions in frame-grabbing technology, 
you can now produce good colour images 
quickly and cheaply with Vidi-Amiga and 
the VidiChrome colour software. 

» Take snapshots in 16 shades live from video 

• Multiple frame store 

• Dynamic cut and paste 
I Full palette control 

Hardware and software control of brightness and contrast 
Compatible with all video standards 



"Vldi must be one of the most exciting peripherals you 

can buy for your Amiga" - Amiga Computing, March 1990 




RRP £134.95 
OUR PRICE 

£119.95 



While stocks last, use the form on page 113 





COMPUTING 



READER OFFERS 




Boost you micro's sound output with an AmiCJ3 S0UIltIui3St 

Take advantage of the Amiga superb sound capabilities by routing 

the output through the Soundblaster's high quality amplifier and speakers. 

The amiplifter has been designed specifically for the Amiga and implements the latest 
microchip technology to produce an ear-shattering five watts output. Twin volume 
controls enable you to adjust the output and balance to suit. 
The quality 50 watt speakers consist of a 3in woofer for thumping bass output, a 2in 
mid-range unit for crisp music and effects and a tiny 1 in tweeter which pumps out the 
highest frequencies the ear can hear. 

The package comes complete with mains adaptor and full instructions 
No soldering or opening of the Amiga casejs^guired - simply plug 
in, boot up your favourite software 
and turn up the volume 



ONLY 
£34.99 




Sou" 1 "" 







The essential peripheral for all 
games players and musicians 



Order today, using the form on Page 113 



Reader 
offers 




Mavis Beacon 
Teaches Typing 

Learn to type quickly, easily and perfectly - the fun way! 

This is an artiliciai intelligence software sysiem from the writers ol Chessmaster 2000 - winner of the US Chess 

Federation Computer Chess Championship. 

It checks your progress lesson by lesson, every step of the way, through a typing course tailored to 

your individual needs. 

Mavis makes the learning fun when creating your lessons by selecting quotes from history's greatest 

writers, countless riddles, rhymes, jokes and hundreds of fascinating facts from the Guinness Book of 

World Records 

If you feel your typing could be better, this is the ideal way to learn! 



RRP £29.99 



OUR PRICE 



£24.99 



AMIGADOS: A Dabhand Guide 

Is a comprehensive guide to the Commodore amiga's disc Operating 
System (Versions 1 .2 and 1 .3). It provides a unique perspective on this 
powerful system in a way which will be welcomed by the beginner and the 
experienced user alike. 

Rather than simply reiterating the Amiga manual, this book takes a 
genuinely different approach to understanding and using the Amiga and 
contains a wealth of practical hands-on advice and hints and tips. 
The many features of this book include: 

• Full coverage ol Am iga DOS 1 .3 lunctions 

• Filing with and without the Workbench 

• The Amiga's hierarchical filing sysiem 

• Pathnames and Device names 

• The Amiga's multitasking capabilities 

• TheAmigaDOS screen editor 

• AmigaDQS commands 

• Batch processing 

• Amiga Error code descriptions 

• How to create new systems discs 

• Use ol the RAM discs 

• Using AmioaDOS with C 
Amiga Computing approved reading 



£14.95 




SAVE 

on batteries 



For you 
personal 
stereo, 
radio 
or TV 



You know how expensive it ts to reptace 
your batteries when tney run down. 
EvBn with rechargeable batteries you 
still havB to wait 14 hours tor lull 
charge. We have solved the problem 
with the unique superlast powerful 
battery and charger kit. 

This amazing device will completely charge tour 
standard AA size rechargeable batteries in under 
2 hours and each battery can be recharged at 
least 1, 000 times. 

Further, for a limited period we can sell the 
charger and four rechargeable batteries at the 
staggering low cost ol £19.95 (plus £1 p&p). 



It will pay for itself within weeks 




Publishers' Choice 

&XV Whether you are designing a simple flyer, creating a newsletter, banners, 
"' posters, or even producing a magazine, Publisher's Choice offers a 

comprehensive solution to your Desktop Publishing and presentation requirements. 
With the program you can easily combine text in a variety of styles, in multiple columns 
and with customised graphics. It comes with over 200 professionally designed images, 
and high quality "Headline" fonts. 

In fact. Publishers' Choice combines the Kindwords 2.0 

wordprocessor, PageSetler 1 .2 page composition package, 
Artists' Choice art program, and the Headline fonlpack. 
Because the Amiga is multi-tasking you can have all the programs 
working on the screen at the same time, or just use ihem 
individually as powerlul stand-alone programs. 



RRP £99.99 



OUR PRICE 



£79.99 



LET THERE BE COLOUR 



Once upon a time there were two drawbacks to video digitising on the Amiga. Either it was slow or it was 
expensive. Thanks to a price breakthrough from Rombo, you can now produce good colour images quickly and 
cheaply. Thanks to Amiga Computing and Bombo you can get the high specification PAL VI Dl digitiser and Vidi 
Chrome colour software for only £119.95. 

The award winning Vidi digitiser connects to a black and white or colour video camera to grab mono pictures 
instantly and uses a series ol (titers combined with a camera to produce startlingly realistic HAM colour images. 

SAVE £15 




Buy the combined 
package of the HiSoft 
Basic Compiler and 
Hisoft's award-winning 
Extend library for less 
than the price of the 
compiler alone 



Hisofl Basic is THE language to gel you 
started with programming the Amiga. 



• Runs up to 30 times faster than 
Amiga Basic 

• Produces stand alone programs 

• Compatible with PC Quick Basic & 
Amiga Basic 



Hisofl Basic is easy to use 



• Supplied with a high quality manual 
•k No upper limit to program or data 

size 

• Multi-tasking editor and compiler 



Hisoft extend is the natural enhancement for 
Hisofl Basic users 



• 50 functions and subprograms 

• Load and Save IFF pictures 

• Use all the commands in your own programs 

Together both programs would 
usually set you back almost £100, 
as a special offer to Amiga 
Computing readers both programs 
are available for just £69.95. 



SEE ORDER FORM ON PAGE 113 



Just how 
good is 



RRP £99.95 




Protext? 

'...merely the best 
wordprocessor for 
the Amiga' 



Protext is acknowledged by many as 

THE word processore for most home micros, 

and the Amiga version is no exception. 

/What you get with Amiga 

Protext is a powerful workhorse with 

a proven track record. Pius a saving of £20 

off the retail price of the 

new version 4! 



Press comments 



Pago t«*ii inp*n during tdfng 

Cv ipsl *» u you typa 

O/w 70 .OH word EflQBtfl dcBonwy 

Micnj 'oconj moC« 

FMWW 

Manu oxwi cori^jtton (ro^trc 

Aju inoart tor p*ogr**n scrtfg 

Lr^trawn; 

Fattrc^rOiFitJ tnfwciK* 

Edt*oFil*l a: j -.'-- 

Kiywi'd o- rnouta oparwon 



A/rupa Computing, 
January 1989 



"For power and value lor money, I don'l think thai Protext can be beaten, ft can be used as simply as 
you choose, or can handle the most complex mailmerge routines... in short, it can be what you want it 
to be". - Micronet 

"Anyone with a professional Interest in words is likely to find it pays dividends". - PC BusineM World 

" It is a refresh ing change to review an inexpensive WP package which lives up to every expect at ion". - 
Which PC 

"Protext deserves to be the system by which all other word processors are judged". - Your Computer 

"The great strength of the package is its ease of use". - CPC Computing 

"Deserves very serious cons kJ era: ion". - Ametrad Professorial Computing 



Reader 
offers 



Keyboard dust cover 
(A500) 



/ 



£4.95 



Protect your 
Amiga with 
this top- 
quality 

cover made from clear, water-resistant vinyl. 
It's bound with strong cotton and features 
the Amiga Computing logo. 




Binder 
£5,95 




Mouse 

mat 

£6.95 




The perfect desktop environ- 
ment for your mouse with its 
specially-designed, perfect- 
grip surface. It ensure much 
smoother movement, 
gives super-positive 
control and protects 
your table top from 
scratches. 



Twelve rods hold your issues 
in place and keep them in 
pristine condition in this smart 
PVC binder. 



Disc storage box 
£4.95 

This luxury padded box is the 

ideal storage medium, holding 

up to FIFTY 3.5" discs 



RRP £54.90 



OUR PRICE 



£34.90 



Home Accounts Day by Day 



Home Accounts has been designed to make full use of 
the Amiga's features, giving you the widest range of 
home accounting facilities available at this price. 

The program lets you set budgets and control up to 1 3 
separate accounts, with optional printouts of any data. 
Within seconds of loading you data disc you can check 
your budget or any account, and even display or print the 
data in bar or pie charts. 

Day by Day replaces your manual system for diary, business organiser, 
notepad, planner, reminder and so on. 

It's suitable for both business and home applications, including numerous 
useful functions which serve every requirement. 

It's suitable for both business and home applications, 
including numerous useful lunctions which serve every 
requirement. 

Among its many features are: 
■k Calender/diary/planner 

ft Categories such as bilb, birthdays and letters 

■& Appointment sorting 

■6- 'Urgent' notice board 

ft 'Overdue' notice board 

ft Advance nolce of forthcoming events 




ft Updating of regular appointments 

ft Comprehensive search facility 

■sir Automatic reminders 

ft Al-a-g lance week and month summaries 

•ft Print option 

■ft Grouping of related messages 



Both of these powerful programs are excellent value on their own, but 
if you buy this exclusive combination package we'll knock £20 off the 
combined retail price. 



Need some extra discs? 



There's always a demand for spare Amiga discs - and at Amiga 
Computing we have lots we will be happy to sell off at a really 
exceptional price. They are all discs that have been prepared as 
monthly cover discs, but they are brand new and have never 
been used, so you can safely reformat them and use them for 
any purpose you like. Look at these prices: 



5 for £7.50! 



25 for £20! 



Batman the Movie computer 
game at a knock-out price 

Only 

£14.95 




AtgAsm 

Probably the fastest 

assembler ever 

for the Amiga! 

Exclusive price for readers of 



^ FjeI one pass design 

t/ Code Iimiied only by memory 

K* Unlimited rumbet of libels 

\S UiQ libel names 

\f Unbilled macro nesting 

V Urtrimiied nclude nesting 
<f Include binary dill 

*/ Extfi-fwljilijl error messjses 

• Ins taction cycle timings 
v 1 Processor, fl 30 display 



v' Multi tasking 

v* Full multi-file capability 

v* UnEtmned split views ol files 

v Cut p-a'siB between windows. 

• InftrVdetaie blocks tic 

t/ FuH configuration fjciliten 

• Save restore environment 
f Extiemefy last lent scrolling 
v* Fast page update Nles 

• Assemble (torn any window 

• Works on Woiknench screen 




£54.95 



RRP £59.95 



SAVE £5! 




COMPUTING 



READER OFFERS 



Only 

£19.95 

genuine leather 
personal organiser 

Worth over £30, the personal organiser is crammed full 
of pages of information including year planners, first aid tips, 
international holidays, mileage charts, dialing codes, weights and 
measure conversions and locations of motorway service areas. 

There's also a daily diary section for 1989, 1990 and 1991, 
maps of the UK and the London underground, an appointments 
schedule, several pages for notes, a personal finance organiser, 
expense sheets, a telephone index, and much, much more! 

Each section is marked using plastic tabs - making it easy 
to find the page you need. There are special pockets for your 
credit and business cards, and you get a handy plastic ruler 
which you can also use to keep your place. 

7 get yourself organised on us. Order today and we'll 
I your personal organiser by return! 




Order today,using the form on Page 113 




Jutl tome of Of ptnonal orgsniaar* mtormtllort-ptcktd page* 




Tank Attack is a computerised board game for two. three or tour 
players, where each one takes the role of a General commanding a 
country's Tank Corps of one or more armoured divisions. 
Your objective is to capture the enemy headquarters, which will require 
the planned strategic deployment of your forces and regular fire duels 
between your own and enemy units. 

Weather, morale, skill, judgement, planning foresight, careful 
management of rebuild and repair facilities and luck all play a part in 
deciding the resull of each game. 

Tank attack is one of those games you keep coming back to, and at the 
special offer price ol orly £19.95 is guaranteed to give you and your 
friends hours ol action-oacked excitement. 

• Control a ful! division of tanks and armoured cars 

• See alf the fighting 'live' on your computer 
Superb board and fully detailed playing pieces 
Real time graphics 
Play as allies or enemies 
Suitable for all ages 



RRP £22.96 
OUR PRICE 

£19.95 



/ 



Place your order today, using the form on Page 113 



Offers subject 

to availability 



^^^"'"readYr'offers 



Valid to 30.6.90 



Back issues 






December 1989-May 1990 bundle £15.00 


9902 

9718 
9719 
9720 




tAdd E3 Europe 8, Eire / £ 1 2 Overseas 




' December 1989 £3-10 




"January 1990 £3.10 




February 1990 £2.10 




March 1990 £2.10 


9721 
9722 
9723 

9881 




April 1990 £2.10 




May 1990 £3.10 




" Includes cover disc 




Cover Discs August-January £9.00 








Rombo Vidi-Chrome ^QaS 


9891 




(see page 10$) £1 1 9 95 








Protext Version 4 


9530 




(seepages 1 10/1 tl) £79.95 









Casio Pocket TV400 colour TV 

(see pages 110/tl 1) 



£94.95 9865 
Plus post and packing £1 .50 



■ 



Hi Soft 

(see page 94) 



^Jjffifc 



Basic Compiler £69.95 9896 



Battery charger 

(seepages 110/111) £1995 gm 

Pius post and packing £1 .50 



World Snooker 

(see page SO) 



£14.95 9900 



Personal Organiser 

(see page 112) £19-95 9901 



Amiga DAB hand Guide 

(seepages 110/111) 

A comprehensive guide to the Amiga's disc 

operating system (versions 1.2 and 1.3) £14.95 9866 



Amiga cover discs 

(seepages 110/111) 

5 assorted discs £7.50 9887 

25 assorted discs £20.00 9888 



Mail Order offers 

(seepages no/111) 

Publishers Choice £79.99 9867 

Mini-Gen £98.85 9869 

Word Perfect 4.1 version 178.85 9870 

X-Cad £89.85 9871 

Small Business Aces Xtra £89.95 9873 

Mavis Beacon Typing £24.99 9874 

Home Accounts/Day by Day £34.90 9851 

ArgAsm £54.95 9858 

Flight Simulator £35.95 9868 

Pair of Scenery Discs £31.90 9872 

Flight Simulator + Discs £65.85 9878 



Amiga Soundblaster 



"ZSSfe 



(see page 109) 



£34.99 



9890 



Batman - The Movie Game 

(seepage 111) £14.95 9882 



Tank Attack 

(seepage 112) 



£19.95 



9848 



Dust covers 



£4.95 9507 



Mouse mats 



£4.95 9508 



Binders 



£5.95 9509 



Disc boxes 



£4.95 9860 



Addition (or postage: Europe & Eire add £3 
Overseas add £5 
Unless otherwise indicated 



n* ill* in* in* in* hi* ill* ill* ill* 



TOTAL 



Send to: Database Direct, FREEPOST, 
Ellesmere Port, South Wirral L65 3EB 

(No stamp needed if posted in UK) 

Products are normally despatched within 4B hours of receipt 

but delivery ot certain Hems could take up to 28 days 



Order at any time of 
the day or night 

Don't torget to give your name, 
address and credit card number 



Orders by phone: 051 -357 1 275 



Orders by Fax: 051-357 281 3 



Orders by MicroLink: MAG001 



General Enquiries: 051-357 2961 



Payment please ndicate method /j 

Cheque/Eurocheque made payable to Database Direct 

Accass/Maslercard'Eurocard/BarclaycardAnsa/Conned 
No, 



Name 



Signed 



Address . 



Expiry / 

Date I /_ 



Daytime telephone number in case of queries 



Post Code 



AM6 



THE LAST BLIT 



To coin a phrase 




THE most famous example of 
the origin of a piece of jargon, 
and the most argued about, is the 
term "bug", which refers to an 
error in either computer equipment 
or programs. 

The most popular and best doc- 
umented story is that it was 
invented in 1945 by a computer 
programmer named Grace Murray 
Hopper while she was working for 



Navy, 
mid 
summer day the 
Harvard Mark 1 started playing up, 
so the boffins had to shut it down. 
Upon investigating they found that 
an electrical switch was blocked by 
the remains of a moth that had 
somehow found its way into the 
maze of circuitry. 

They removed it with tweezers 
and taped it into their meticulously 
kept logbook (which still exists). 
Next to it they wrote: "First actual 
case of a bug being found." 



After that, every time an officer 
came in to ask if they were achiev- 
ing anything, they told him they 
were "debugging" the computer. 
The term stuck, 

Any word ending in "ware" is a 
good example of jargon. First we 
had hardware and software. Then, 
when the differences between them 
became a bit fuzzy, we had 
firmware. 

Products which were constantly 
overshooting their completion 
deadlines were labelled vapour- 
ware, and some seriously malad- 
justed technicians went on to 
rename the human operators as 
wetware. 

Looking at the number of Strip 
Poker games and other stereotyped 
programs available at the moment, 
we could probably get away with 
calling the whole leisure software 
market mensware. 



Tomorrow never 
comes 



DO you remember spending many 
hours in school rhyming off 
proverbs by heart, and wondering 
about their relevance to modern 
day life? There is no doubt that 
several could benefit from being 
modernised, so here is the list we 
in the office have compiled so far. 
Many would do well as entries in 
the Amiga manual, and should be 
engraved upon your heart. 

• Look before you format. 

• A game on the disc is worth two 
in the listings, 

• Don't put all your files in one 
partition. 

• Don't count your discs before 
they're verified. 

• A fool and his copyright are soon 
parted. 

• We'll Dos that bridgeboard when 
we come to it. 

• Pride comes before a guru. 

• Look after the bits, and the bytes 
will look after themselves. 

• Rom wasn't blown m a day. 



ADVERTISERS' INDEX 



17 Bit Software ..88 

Adamsofl 33 

A.S.A 86 

Amigalex 86 

Amiga PD Library 108 

Applied Research Kemal 108 

Amor 98 

Ashcom 70 

Bytes & Pieces 79 

Calco 72 

Castle Software 34 

Computer Store 68 

Computerwise 114 

Contriver Europe 27 

Database Software 80 

Datel Electronics... 76, 83 

Diamond Computers ....106, 107 

Digicom 15 

Digigraphic 28 

Digiia International 12 

Electra Public Domain 88 

Entertainment Iniernational.,1 16 

Eurolink 104,105 

Evesham Micros 94 

Equinox Business Systems ....89 

Gonzo Games 49 

Greater London Computers..,. 8 6 
Hampshire Micro Computers .78 



Hi-Soft 7 

Home Based Business 78 

HSV Computer Services 31 

Infogrames 2 

Kadsoft 86 

Ladbroke 41 

L.C.L 78 

Magnetic Media 78 

MD Office Supplies 58 

Memory Expansion Systcms....8 

Microdeal 6,55,97 

MicroLink... 50 

Microtext 88 

Mistral Computer Supplies ....80 

Overseas Media 3 

Power Computing 16, 17, 18 

P_Dom PD Amiga 96 

Tlombo : .115 

SKMarketing 73 

Softmachinc 70 

Softsellers 20 

Solid State 72 

Special Reserve 23 

George Thompson Services .102 

US Action.... 24 

Video Productions 33 

Virtual Reality 80 

WTS Electronics 78 



M COMPUTERWISE 

!|4 BRIGHTON 

AMIGA SPECIALISTS 

WE HAVE 1 OOS OF SOFTWARE TITLES (MANY ARE NOW 

DISCOUNTED), BOOKS 

AND PERIPHERALS IN STOCK AT ALL TIMES. 

CALL IN TODAY FOR YOURS 

£1000 INSTANT CREDIT AVAILABLE 
TO PERSONAL CALLERS 



■ST 0273 674626 

OPEN 1 O AM TO S.30 PM MONDAY TO SATURDAY 
44 GEORGE STREET. KEMPTOWN, BRIGHTON 
OPPOSITE THE AMERICAN EXPRESS BUILDING 



E3 



EXTERNAL 3.5" AMIGA DISC DRIVE 

12 Months Guarantee 

On/off switch 

Through port 

Slimline 




Acid £2.50 
Post & Packing 



J.H.L. 

8/9 Market Square Biggleswade Beds. SG18 8AP 



114 AMIGA COMPUTING June 1990 



ggBfi 



Sfcl 



V#^ 



i^nw^ 



"■'■> 



j. ■'. ■■— '■ 



^ 



:yj*? 



*•>■? 



VTDI-AMIGA SCREEN SHOT 



■M 



l*B - 



AWLA&LE 
FROM ALL GOOD 
COMPUTER SHOPS 



il 



^i 



J^ 



- --_- ■ *■ 



\ 



- -'■-.-. 



' V ■ fC 



PAL VERSION 

£114.95 

INC VAT 



I VIDI FEATURES 

• Take snapshots in 16 shades live 
from video. 

• Multiple frame store will utilise all 
available memory ). 

• Dynamic cut and paste. 

• Full palette control. 
9 1 iardware and software 

control of brightness and 
contrast. 
9 Compatible with all video 
standards ■ colour, hlark 
and while VHS, Beta, 

KPAL,NTSCetc. 
Upgradable to full colour 
with additional 
•MDICirROMEpack. 
OUR UPGRAD1 
£19.95 inc VAT 



VIDI ENABLES YOU TO . . . 



Have perfect freeze frame from 
any video. 

© hicurporule real life objects into I 
your favourite design. 

• Grab real time 3-D images 
from TV. 

r - ■ Enhance \t hi r .-graphics 

creativity. 

• Capture and store 
action sequencer. 

De>k top video. 

D.T.P. DeskTop 
Publisliiit'jjj: 



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VIM-AMIGA SCREEN SHOT 



VIDI- 
AMIGA 




Rombo Ltd., 6 Fairbairn Road, Kirkton North, TEL: 0506-414631 
Livingston, Scodand EH54 6TS. FAX: 0506-414634 



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SUUAVANBUJ 






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ESCAPE FROM SINGE'S CASTLE 
The Adventure continues... 

- New scenarios and characters combine to make Escape from 
singe's Castle the best sequel to the best selling animated 
fantasy adventure of all time. 

"Make sure you siv fin's game , it uses the Autisa in the way it was 
intended... to amaze" Amiga Computing 85% 

Available Now: Amiga (A500, A1000/A2000) Only 512K 
required 

Stunning musicand enhanced sound FX 
plus extra screens with 1Mb 
Never the same game twice 
Incredible animation, better than 
ever before! 

Links with the original Dragon's Lair 
for the Ultimate playing experience. 



DRAGON'S LAIR 

"Unquestionably the most stunning home computer game you 
will Imve ever seen" Commodore Computing International 

Available Now: Amiga (A500/A2000 with 1MB, 
A1000 with 512K) 
IBM PC (EGA, VGA, TANDY® 

Coming soon Atari ST 




Coming soon 



4 THE STANNF.TTS, LAINDON, NORTH TRADE CENTRE, BASILDON, 
ESSF.X SS156DJ TEL No. (1)268) 541126 FAX No. (0268) 541125 



' Escape irnrn Sjnce sdslie " 'Dragim'* Lair arid "S-pjCe A»e " a:e rt-ci'.irrt'J ;:ade marks en 
h-Blulh Group. Ltd© l^E^ Croup, Ltd: usedujiderlJc€nrffrom5iiElwnBhithtoterada« 
Medi*. Inc All programming wurre code. Bfcirci rude ind gnftan £ J9* ^ulliiitti Sfulh 

IfllrrWhir Media, inc.. Character Bmim. £1<W* Don Blulh, All RIGHTS PF-?FR^."ED